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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to be scared of parallel parking

75 replies

IDoDaChaCha · 08/10/2017 20:54

Heeeeeeeeeeelp! Moving to a terraced house and can't parallel park... Pathetic I know. How do you do it? I was taught the 'triangle trick' method but can't remember anything after; position car parallel a car doors width from car you want to park behind, align your wing mirror with its front door handle, turn wheel fully hard right, moving back very slowly you see a triangle appear in your mirror... And my mind is a complete blank after that!! Just been out in the car trying to practice and got it wrong half as many times as I got it right.... Seriously need a step by step technique.

OP posts:

RainbowPastel · 08/10/2017 21:37

Shirley so you changed your car and couldn't parallel park it. The principle is the same whether you are parking a mini or a transit van. You just have to adjust the angles slightly.

ShirleyPhallus · 08/10/2017 21:39

No I didn't change my car. I learnt to drive in the instructors car then I bought my own.

As another poster says, the first few times / weeks / months you go out by yourself driving IS scary and you have to concentrate so much on so many things that for me, parking wasn't the most essential bit to practice. And I didn't need to do it anyway as I have a large driveway and don't ever really park on the street.

But it was entirely my choice to let that skill fall away. NOT the fault of the instructor as you say.

BastardTart · 08/10/2017 21:41

For years after passing my test I couldn't do it confidently, so I just drove around till I found a space big enough to drive straight into.

Then I got a job where I had to parallel park in the staff Carl park every day. The first month or so was difficult but after that I suddenly knew how to do it. It's just practice. But if you're really nervous then just get some parking sensors fitted

BastardTart · 08/10/2017 21:42

car park, not Carl park obvs

annielouise · 08/10/2017 21:46

Practice. I find also not following any instructions helped me, instead doing it instinctively. Make a note of your starting position with regards the car that will be in front of your when parked successively so you can use that as a marker. Choose a quiet road at first and keep doing it.

I find doing it to a road on the left easier than on the right so I stick to that. The only other thing I follow is when the car is halfway on the road when looking in your review mirror then turn the wheel fast the other way. Starting position is important.

anditwasalladream · 08/10/2017 21:46

Oh gosh! I hate parallel parking too, had a driveway for the 3 years after passing my test but then moved into a terrace with on street parking.
I watched you tube videos with my model of car in, I found some really useful ones from driving instructors on there.

DianaPrincessOfThemyscira · 08/10/2017 21:48

I didn't take me long to learn how to parallel park in my very tight road. You'll get used to it when you're doing it a couple of times a day!

eurochick · 08/10/2017 21:53

Markers will be different for every car so it's much more useful if you can manage it instinctively. If not try to figure out your markers.

But my main advice would be to practice. Find a non busy road with cars parked here and there and practice parking behind them. Once you are confident with that you will be fine on your road. I was great at parallel parking when I lived in a terrace. These days I always park in car parks or on driveways. On the rare occasions I have to park on the road I am nowhere near as good as I used to be!

Hebenon · 08/10/2017 21:59

I was a bit scared of parallel parking at first (passed about three years ago). It is actually really easy, and the method my instructor taught me did not really work for the small spaces in my road, although it worked fine for what they ask you to do in the test which involves a way bigger space (not often found in London).

What I do is pull up as close as possible to the car I am parking beside (so the wing mirror on my side is just a few inches away from the car beside me). This is on the right in what I am about to say (because of the particular road systems, I nearly always end up parking on the right hand side of my road which is the side I live on). I position my car parallel to the parked car on the right and with the back end of my car only slightly behind the back end of the car I am beside. Turn your wheel full lock to the right and reverse slowly into the space. Your car will swing out into the road so if the road is narrow, keep an eye on the front end of your car so you don't have to worry the front of your car will hit the other parked cars on the left. I live in a very narrow road which is heavily parked up on both sides so this may not be applicable to you (and in fact I have never had a problem with this, I just feel anxious about it)! As you reverse, keeping an eye on the left front of your car from time to time, look out of the rear window. When the left hand side of the back of your car is just a tiny bit further in than the headlights of the car behind you, stop for a second. Put the handbrake on if you need to. If you are like me, you are now panicking slightly, so relax! Turn your steering wheel all the way to the left. Continue reversing until your car has swung back parallel to the pavement. You should not need to correct, but if you do you can wiggle about a bit until you are closer to the pavement if you need to.

It works every time. I can park in smaller spaces than you would imagine possible now - and I certainly never thought I would be able to do this as the manoeuvres were my least favourite part of learning to drive by a LONG way.

HHH3 · 08/10/2017 22:06

I got so fed up of driving past spaces because I couldn't parallel park that I went back to my old instructor and booked a lesson just on parallel parking. Good job I did as a couple of months later I ended up moving to a street that I'd have never been able to park on. I now do it several times a day no problem.

gamerchick · 08/10/2017 22:06

Half arm width inbetween cars. Line your wing mirror up with other cars lights. Reverse until you lose other car in wing mirror. One full turn and reverse until door handle on bottom of curb in mirror, then 2 full turns the other way until car lines up with curb then one full steer off.

121 I remember it.

Seriously ask an instructor to give you refresher lessons. It’ll come back to you.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 08/10/2017 22:15

I went out with a friend in my new car and ended up having to right hand parallel park. It went straight in first try. I was so pleased with myself!

You just need a bit of practice. Have a few goes with someone guiding you in to give you a bit of confidence.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic · 08/10/2017 22:25

Parallel parking is my weak skill in driving. I did manage it sufficiently to pass my test (I remember having to align my door handle with something?) but I've had bigger cars since learning and the skill has atrophied through minimal need to use it. I can't remember the last time I had to put my car parallel between two others in a gap little bigger than my car. I don't know of somewhere suitable to practice that isn't permit zones or metered parking (I learned in a different town). If you don't use a skill, you lose it- I doubt I'd get a grade in A-level French now either.

With practice, it will come back.

AllPizzasGreatAndSmall · 08/10/2017 22:26

Anyone who passed their test and cannot parallel park then their instructor has failed to do their job then.
Well when I took my test it wasn't a required manoeuvre!

ihatetosay · 08/10/2017 22:29

all these people who cant park better go and have a lesson ffs or get off the road as you obv have no spatial awareness

gamerchick · 08/10/2017 22:29

They don’t cover all the manoeuvres anyway in the test. They just pick one of them.

Hebenon · 08/10/2017 22:31

Anyone who passed their test and cannot parallel park then their instructor has failed to do their job then.

Yes, this is clearly rubbish. The parallel parking task you are asked to do in the test bears no relation to the reality of it. In the test, you are asked to park in a space that is about two and often more car lengths long. In real life you have to park in a space that is likely to be maybe a foot or two bigger than your car. I was great at the test task but then had to relearn how to do it in real London spaces in my insanely parked up and narrow road. It was a different process and not in the least comparable to the test task.

Original poster

IDoDaChaCha · 08/10/2017 22:40

Thanks for all the suggestions I don't know about not being taught to park properly, but there's quite a bit of not having been taught to spell properly on this thread... easy to judge isn't it

OP posts:

Whitelisbon · 08/10/2017 22:42

I couldn't parallel park if my life depended on it, until I got my current car, which is a 9 seater minibus. Can park that thing anywhere. I think what helps is the blind spot mirrors, they're little mirrors below the wing mirrors that show the blind spot.
Embarrassingly, I couldn't park Dh's Corsa in a space I'd have got mine in twice the other day, and had to drive round the corner and abandon it, then walk back past the hooting teenagers who'd watched me try and fail to park it.
Anyway, my advice is to adjust your wing mirrors so you can see the road and your wheels, that seems to work in my monster.

PassiveAgressiveQueen · 08/10/2017 22:46

Reversing camera, that was how i learnt to parallel park.

ContraryLollipop · 08/10/2017 23:00

I couldn't do it without the reversing beep sensors, would love to have cameras!

My driving instructor made it really easy by putting sticky-out tabs on the mudguards and stickers on the mirrors and there was a set formula to follow(when you see X sticker aligning with Y in the mirror then turn 1.5 times clockwise, that sort of thing, although I can't remember it!)

Reminds me of this viral video from a few years back...

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 08/10/2017 23:03

Oh god yes I can’t park a small car either, I’m used to my Landrover.

LadyBusDriver · 08/10/2017 23:05

Sorry this is a massive bug bear of mine - vehicles if not controlled properly can kill so if you can’t park / reverse / do an emergency stop /drive on all kinds of roads in all kinds of conditions then you shouldn’t be driving.

I think the driving test should be a lot harder and everyone should re-sit every 5 years, it would get more tax for the government in a good way and wipe a lot of the bad drivers off the roads!

And as far as your problem goes OP - get advanced driving lessons.

Hebenon · 08/10/2017 23:10

I park just fine in a Fiesta. I had a Ford Ka before that. It's the same process. I can also park my Dad's BMW which is about the same length as a small bus as far as I can tell! I actually find the sensors on that a bit off-putting.

TheOtherNNB · 08/10/2017 23:14

I’m amazed anyone can be a driver for so long and not be required to parallel park ever?!

Do you all live in rural wastelands or something?

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