To ask school to choose? (parking)

[Carpark1]

Aibu to ask my DD’s school to choose to alert that they must reverse park. There are no guidelines in the car park and I just feel like it’s mayhem. If we all reversed parked then it may be s bit more streamlined and time saving? Do you think they would find me weird for suggesting it ?😂😬

I passed my test 3 years ago and didn't have to reverse park in the test

So? Like other people have said if you didn't have to stop at a red light in the test or wait at a roundabout does that mean you're not expect to know how to do it?

The test has a number of possible manoeuvres you're expected to know - reverse parking in a bay, reversing around a corner, 3 point turn, parallel parking etc you will only be asked to perform one of them but you're expected to know them all.

ForalltheSaints it’s a rural school. OP said there are only two houses in walking distances& neither have kids. my kids go to a rural school, out of the 100 kids only about 10 live in walking distance.

I didn’t get taught how to reverse park when I learnt to drive either (10 years ago) so I can’t do it! I’m really shit at bay parking and drive for the top of a multi story car park or miles away from the supermarket so that I can get a space with a space next to it as I generally need to straighten up

How bloody ridiculous!

@ForalltheSaints seriously RTFT we live rurally, the school is rural, the roads are small winding country roads it would be dangerous to walk and would take over half an hour even if we tried. There’s two houses next to the school and neither have children anyway. There’s not even footpaths. So no ppl can’t walk.

I never really understand why lack of ability to park is generally displayed as some sort of badge of honour!

If you can’t manage to place your car between two lines then surely you either ask someone to teach you or pay for a couple of lessons?

Reastie
In my entirely anecdotal experience, the bigger the car, the worse the parking and the higher the rate of 'oh I'm over the line/8 inches into another space/preventing the next car from getting in on one side/parked? I thought it was acceptable to abandon my car 6 inches from the kerb on the road' attitude there is.

And thats before the fact most near me seem to be forward parked, not straight, reverse it go spaces by doing a 264 point reverse.

The number of people who drive large cars (especially the status 4x4 types which are required for navigating the dangerous rugged terrain of School Drive's speed bumps) is significantly higher than the number who can park them well.

When I first passed my test I got a car that was a fair bit bigger than what I'd learnt to drive in. The responsibility was on me to take said car to a quiet car park (they exist, if you go at weird times) and learn to reverse park the bloody thing. It's not that difficult if you want to do it, just learn your point of turns for your car.

Reverse parking and forward parking are part of the current test.

Reverse parking and parallel parking requires good use of wing mirrors and observatory skills. Not being able to shows a distinct lack in these core skills

^This

Just get some more lessons or practice. Appalling that drivers say they can't reverse park. What happens if you're on a narrow country lane and have to reverse back a fair distance because of a car coming in the opposite direction? I bet you always just sit there and wait for the other driver to reverse.

It's like someone I heard of who won't turn right at a red light. So she ends up driving round and round so she doesn't have to. Pathetic. AFAIC she shouldn't be on the road

Our local M&S car park is mayhem. It's tiny and filled with lots of people drinking massive ego wagons who then attempt to reverse park and take about 20 goes to get it right. Drives me mad!!

Appalling that drivers say they can't reverse park

I used to think I couldn't but then I had to do it and realise s how much easier it was compared to going in forwards. Especially with a big car with a sloping bonnet and no parking sensors!

I reckon a lot of people think they can't do it but would actually find I really easy once they'd learned how.

@SoupDragon totally, I have an older Ford C-Max and I manage to reverse park and leave space to open the boot, it’s not rocket science 🙄

If you think you can't reverse park, just go to a carpark at a quiet time, go to the far end and practice practice practice reversing in between the lines. Give it an hour, and you'll be able to do it.

Alternatively, just ignore that and be one of those people who never reverse on a narrow road when you should be, and just wait for the other person to reverse

I don't remember reverse parking when having lessons, just parallel, which was in the test.
And I always needed a couple of attempts and a deep breath to reverse around a bend.
But I managed to reverse park well just a few days after taking my test.

I've got a new slightly longer car and I still need a few adjustments occasionally, but in some parking spaces, in narrow roads, reversing is by far the best option.

I take ages to reverse park but im getting better and always do it in car parks as it's safer. Yanbu op

Everyone who has passed a test must have done the reverse round a corner manoeuvre or even bay parking if it's recent. I was shit at the reverse round a corner (which is probably why I thought I couldn't reverse park) and even I can do it.

Alternatively, just ignore that and be one of those people who never reverse on a narrow road when you should be, and just wait for the other person to reverse
Those people are infuriating, especially when you know the road and they are 100m from a passing place vs my 500m.
They just sit there helplessly.
I'd love to know what happens when two incompetent reversers meet on a narrow road.

I watched a woman a few weeks ago trying to reverse her fiesta into a bay at Tesco. She was turning and twisting in her seat; spinning about to see where she was at. Not one did she look in her mirrors

If it’s so much harder to reverse park in a big car then I think the answer would be a basic driving test for up to a set size car and additional test for larger cars/4x4s. Most of the parents at dds school have cameras and beeping alerts for reversing yet still can’t do it with all this extra help.

I’ve spent a lot of time in hospital car parks recently (pg) and I genuinely can’t believe the amount of people that go in forwards to spaces and then when they come to reverse out are so clumsy with a ten point turn to get the angle to leave the car park and just not getting the angles.

If you think you can't reverse park, just go to a carpark at a quiet time, go to the far end and practice practice practice reversing in between the lines. Give it an hour, and you'll be able to do it.

^^ This!

That’s what I did when my work car park introduced compulsory reverse parking, ad guess what? The more you practice it the easier it gets!

If someone really can’t cope with the thought of practicing reverse parking by themselves then surely they could pay a driving instructor to spend a lesson teaching them to reverse park.

Takes me forever to reverse park so the time saved by driving out more easily is taken away by the people struggling to reverse park in the first place. School wouldn't wear it anyway.

It's not about "time saved" it is about safety as well. You are far more likely to hit someone reversing out of a space than you are reversing in to one.

I was never taught to bay park/reverse park as the test centre i did my test didn't have a car park 🤷‍♀️
I've taught myself but i hate doung it

DH didn't have to do the reverse parallel parking bit a few years earlier in 1991.

@Aragog I had to do it when I passed mine in 1991. There were three possible reverse manoeuvres, candidates had to learn them all, and would be tested on two of them randomly in a test. Reverse park (roadside it into a space) Reverse round a corner and Turn in the road using forward and reverse gears.