Do you guys have any tips for parallel parking? Failed my test once....I don't think I felt my heart beating...it felt like it stopped through the whole test. The guy driving me was such a jerk...I wanted to drive us into traffic or into a wall....I had nightmares after that. Why did they add parallel parking to the test???WHY WHY?

I keep forgetting you're a girl.....

abierman said:

What is that supposed to mean? anyway, I'm puny and small so....can you give me any tips? Why do you keep forgetting, is it my Freddie avatar? Someone said they thought I was a gay man .

Practice
Practice
Practice


good luck

Mach said:

thanks Mach

unlucky7 said:

Girls are usually bad at parallel-parking, I'm not being sexist, it's just the truth!

It's probably the Freddie avatar!

unlucky7 said:

i'm terrible at parallel parking, too. i try to frequent places with good parking, such as garages or big lots.
[Edited 7/24/07 9:45am]

Sorry no tips here, I am glad I was never asked to parallel park back when i took my test cause to this day I can't parallel park

I've become quite good at it.

Don't turn your wheel until your side mirror lines up with the car beside you's back window.

Works everytime for me.

JustErin said:

thanks for the tips.

before I was so nervous...I started driving slow then i got faster and faster and I couldn't stop.

My advice would be to get some sunglasses and just rock the p-park.

abierman said:

BS!!

I'm the best parallel parker of anyone I know.

I was once dating a guy who was awful at it and he got really mad at me when I offered to parallel park the car for him. Thought it was emascualting.

2the9s said:

hmm


no one with step by step instructions...

OK, here is my advice. This is written as if you're an American driver, sitting on the left side of the car, and the parking space is to your right:

Line up next to the car that's directly ahead of the parking space. You should be about three feet from the car, and the important thing is to make sure your rear bumper is even with that car's rear bumper.

Now, turn the steering wheel all the way to the right and start backing in slowly.

As you back in, slowly turn the steering wheel to the left. You're trying to maintain about 1 - 2 feet from the side of your car and the rear bumper of the car that's parked ahead of the parking space.

As soon as the front of your car clears the other car's rear bumper, turn your steering wheel all the way to the left. You want the nose of your car to just miss the rear bumper of the car ahead of you. (By "just miss" I mean by a foot or so.)

You should be able to adjust with the steering wheel and fit perfectly in the space. You might need to go back and forth once or twice in the space to get perfectly centered.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

If you run into the curb when you're backing in, you started too close to the other car. Pull out of the space and give yourself another foot or so.

The opposite holds true if you end up too far away from the curb. Or, if you end up too far away from the curb, you may have turned the wheel too aggressively to the left as you started backing into the space. Usually, starting too far away from the other car, and turning the wheel too aggressively go hand-in-hand, so if you end up frustrated, just remember you have two problems to fix.

Parallel parking isn't that hard once you figure out: (1) How far away from the other car you need to be to start with; and (2) Working the steering wheel properly.

REMEMBER - The goal is to get your car's nose to just clear the rear bumper of the other car. If you get that done, the rest is a piece of cake.

Good luck!

CarrieMpls said:

some guys are just dumb....a real man would let you help them.

JustErin said:

Now that is the kind of tip I can actually remember!

unlucky7 said:

yeah, I didn't date him long.

As for tips, I can't find a way to articulate it. I mainly got good with practice. For a few years I lived in an area of the city where parking was incredibly scarce and I got used to squeezing my car into spots with mere inches on either side.

RodeoSchro said:

Thanks, you're a life saver. I'm going to print this out and read it over and over again. Thanks

2the9s said:

live4lust said:

Me too! I avoid parallel parking as much as possible. I am willing to park far away from wherever I am going just so that I don't have to do it.

i've gotten good at parallel parking recently, I think because I have to do it all the time now.

At first I used to park by braille, which basically means rolling up onto the curb and then sliding off of it so you can park nice and close to the side of the road.

Then I got to the point where I could kinda park between two cars but the back of my car would stick out a bit and I would just be like "fuck it".

Now, I can actually parallel park like a normal person just as long as I have one or two feet on either side and I'm getting better everyday.

So...um..I guess you should just practice. It took me years. It doesn't take most people that long, though. Good Luck!