Posted on June 20, 2010.
Sharpen your skills in parallel parking For teens, at first taking their driving test, parallel parking is often considered the most formidable. For adults, this does not change much, especially if you're not in the practice of parking in this way.
What parallel parking? Parallel parking is a method of parking a vehicle in line with other parked cars. Cars parked in parallel are on a line parallel to the curb with the front bumper of each car in front of the rear bumper of the next house. Parallel parking requires driving the car in reverse into the parking space. Roads that facilitate parking have said an additional lane or a wide shoulder for parked cars. It is also used at all times parking is not available - mostly in large metropolitan areas where there is a high density of vehicles. Driving forward into a parking space on the edge of a road is generally not possible unless two successive parking spaces are empty.
If you have forgotten the rules for parallel parking or has been a while since you had to try it, that's how it goes:
1. Make sure the space you are looking to park in is big enough for your vehicle. A big SUV will obviously need more room than a Mini Cooper. In general, you want to park in a space that is about one and a half times longer than your vehicle.
2. Check traffic beside you and behind you, then signal your desire to pull over and stop. Go along or parallel to the vehicle before the empty space, leaving about three feet between vehicles. Stop when your rear bumper is in line with the other vehicle.
3. Find the back corner of the car in the side window. In reverse, start turning the wheel to the right toward the curb when the front of your car to the rear of the car, you are next.
4. When you can see the outside back corner of the vehicle in front of your space, straighten the wheels while you continue in the opposite direction.
5. Make sure the nose of your car will clear the car in front of you, begin turning the wheel to the left.
6. Turn the wheel fully to the road to bring your vehicle in line with the curb.
7. If your vehicle is not parallel to the curb, to advance redress.
Once you are parked, the parking brake and put your car in park or if you have a manual transmission, shift into reverse. Of course, you want to check traffic before you open your door.
If this sounds intimidating, try practicing in an empty parking lot with cones or garbage cans with flags coming out of them. Perfect parking takes practice and practice on the cones of vehicle rather than someone may be the wisest solution.
