Worst Feeling Ever

[jsecure]

This has been dominating my life the last 18 hours. I couldn’t sleep last night. So I was coming into my building last night and we have this underground car park. My allocated space is next to another allocated space, and on my right is a big concrete pillar. I entered my space front first and avoided the pillar, but I was a little close to the car next to me. I tried to reverse a bit and adjust, but somehow that made it worse. And then I tried again, and it got worse. I ended up with my car leaning sideways into their bay, like an inch away from their car. I called my wife for advice (I’m a relatively new driver and I’m not great at parking sometimes) and she said, leave it because if you move any more you will hit their car. They were parked rear first, and if I try to reverse out I would impact their wing mirror. There is a solution; they could just drive out in a straight line as their car is pointing outwards anyway and is clear. Then I could sort out my worst ever parking job and get out of their bay. But my word; I wish I hadn’t got in the car that day. What an awful parking job; literally the worst ever. I’m really ashamed about it. I’m coming back from work now and I hope they’ve squeezed last me to go shopping or something so I can fix up my appalling parking job. I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about it. My wife inisists on driving most of the time and I have said I need to get more practical parking experience. Now she’s gone for a month visiting family so if I don’t drive, I don’t eat. I’ve parked there before without issues but oh my did that go wrong. That poor person parked next to me; they didn’t deserve such a jerk parking job next to their nice car. Oh dear.

I'm not trolling. I'm a good driver, or I want to be. My driving instructor taught me real well. I passed with seven minors, I think it was. One of which was a complete and total minor for opening the front bonnet because my instructor did go through it with me but it was so dire the instructor had to come out of the hut and open it for the examiner. Total fail on that section. Luckily you can't get a major for failing to open the front bonnet... Yeah my driving instructor was really great. Good guy. He taught me well and I don't ever go over the speed limit; I keep a three second distance, sometimes more. If someone cuts in front of me I gently pull back. I'm a good driver, I want to be, but some parts of my driving are not quite as advanced as I would like and when stuff really goes wrong, that gets to me. I was imagining I'd get back to my car with an angry note on my windscreen, or the other driver would have not been able to get to work and would be furious, or they keyed the side of my car, or hit it or something. In the end they were so nice, just moved their car over. It was enough I could fix the situation. I'm a good driver. I want to be. I will be. I just have some rough edges. But I really don't like messing up other people's day. Just want to do my thing and parking real dumb like that eats at me. I'm very relieved this is all over.

I'm a guy actually. My wife is the better driver. Of which she frequently reminds me. But then she's been driving for like 15 years to my two. And I haven't been driving regularly all of those two years.

Totally get that. Had there been anyone else in the car park I probably would have been like, please help. This... happened. I'm glad it worked out for you on the day.

I just got my first car with a rear parking camera and was initially very confused by those lines. Yes, you’ve had a good idea to practice reversing into a space in an empty supermarket car park until you work it out. Get someone to explain the different lines. Even when my red line is sounding an alarm I am still inches away from the wall/other car or whatever. They have really helped my parking - and I have been driving for 36 years, so I thought I was already quite good. I am now able to park easily and neatly in tiny spots

I joined the police at age 19, way back in 1976. As I didn't have a licence, I was sent on a 4 week intensive driving course. There were 3 PCs plus an instructor to a car and we PCs took turns at the wheel. We were on duty, so we were all in full uniform, and my group was in a bright orange Morris Marina - we couldn't really have been more conspicuous if we had tried.

I was doing fine - mirror/ signal/ manoeuvre, roundabouts, 3-point turns, reversing round a corner etc, etc - no problem. Until one morning, the instructor asked me to stop on a (fortunately quiet) street. "Now I want you to reverse off the street into this alley." (The alley in question ran between two rows of back-to-back terraced houses). "And now you're going to reverse the length of the alley and come back onto the street." So four 90 degree turns - right, left, left, right.

I did the first two corners, but the third went horribly wrong and I inched back and forth trying to reverse this sodding orange Marina around without hitting the walls on either side. I gave up when it was wedged at 45 degrees across the corner. Eventually, the instructor got the car out, we went for an early lunch and spent the afternoon in the classroom working on driving theory, with diagrams!

I can do it now, but I still avoid reverse parking when I can.

I don't have any sensors or cameras, and I think it probably helps me be a better driver. Plus I have been a cyclist as well and that definitely improved my car skills.

But anyway, the thing is, you don't really learn to drive until you've passed your test. This time you learned how to do the . Next time, you'll realise and stop before it gets too bad. Eventually it'll be a silly story to remember and laugh about.

No harm done!