Parking your car is a tricky manoeuvre and can be a daunting task for even the most confident of drivers.
One driving instructor has revealed one tip that should make slotting your car into a park a whole safer, easier and even more convenient.
Stephen Potter from National Advanced Drivers School believes putting your car in reverse is the best way to park it in a side-by-side spot (one you'd find at a mall or supermarket parking lot), explaining that it will make possible dangers more visible when you’re exiting the park.
“When you're reversing into the park, hopefully it should be clear and there are not too many hazards to have to deal with,” he told Seven Sharp.
“You can back into it quite easily and when you come out, you're coming out forwards so you have a much better view of what's in front of you and all the mobile hazards that could be moving through that car park like small children, pedestrians, bicycles — anything like that.”
"It's much easier to deal with that when you're coming out forwards."
He also added that the physical makeup of many cars means they’re better suited to backing into a park.
“Some cars these days are quite low so if you're going into something that's perpendicular to the kerb and you're going in frontways, there is potential, sometimes, that you can strike the front of your vehicle on the kerb, whereas if you're backing a car in, it's generally higher in the back and there's less chance of that happening.”
When it comes to parallel parking, Stephen believes that all you need is a bit of practice and it’ll be a piece of cake.
“A reverse parallel park is not actually that difficult if you learn the process. When we teach young people to drive they’re quite amazed at how quickly they can learn it and actually how easy it is if they follow the process.”
I’ll be making sure to keep this in mind next time I’m out on the road!
