[r_nairtvm]

MANY of us think we know how to park a car parallel to a kerb.

Do You?

The driving training in India as I knew it many years ago did not place any emphasis on it. The training for the H test (in Kerala) probably had some elements of the parking process in it. I am sure many of the other states had something equivalent to it. But there was no testing per say for Garage Parking – forward or reverse, Parallel/Kerb Parking.

Many of us do that out of habit/or our driving skills. So no harm in knowing the correct way as a refresher if for nothing else.

Here is the simplest way: (Adapted from an article by Mr. Irving Marsh)

1. Check traffic in your rear-view mirror, then with adequate warning/signal that you are stopping at the desired place. Drive alongside car 2, with about two feet of space between. Stop when the rear bumper of your car is beside the rear bumper of car 2. This first position is really important (believe me, this is crucial, as I have seen from my experience if this position is wrong, you will never get it right at one go) Refer Figure 1 below:.
2. Back slowly, steering sharply to the left, until your car is at nearly a 45-degree angle to the kerb. Your left front door or your left wing mirror should now be. opposite the rear bumper of car 2. (You can pause the cars motion here, if you like, to check your relative position) Refer Figure 2 below.
3. Straighten the front wheels. Continue backing into the parking pace until the left end of your front bumper is opposite the right end of the rear bumper of car 2. Refer Figure 3 below.
4. Turn the steering wheel rapidly to the right as far as it will go while backing slowly into thee parking space. Your left rear wheel should no be close to the kerb, but not touching it. Refer Figure 4 below
5. Go forward slowly, turning the steering-wheel to the left to bring the car parallel to the kerb. Stop the car after centring it at about an equal distance from cars 2 and 3. Refer figure 5 below

You can just do the mirror image of the above if you are doing a kerb parking on the right side

You can practice this on your own with just 4 sticks/rods/pipes of about 5 feet long. Drive the sticks/rods/pipes at 4 corners of an imaginary rectangle which is just slightly wider than your car and about 4-5 feet longer than your car. The parking bay length is fixed at 6 Mts. internationally. Then you can start practicing reversing in to this box, until you get it in a “smooth slithering motion”

I fully attest this method, as I am living in a place where I have to do this practically every time I use a car.

Hope someone benefits from this!

Best Regards & Drive/Ride Safe

Ram

[faridsahmed]

Nice one - Short & sweet. Well this type of parking really requires some skill (judgement). I think point no 2 & 3 would really help the new drivers

[ElantraGT]

Ram, thats a good illustration . I have seen lot of people trying to park by driving the nose of the car inbetween the two cars and get struck.

[Latheesh]

I avoid parallel parking :-) nice and simple

Anyway nice piece of information, will try it next time

[ranjitss]

Good article. Describes the theoretical part of it. As rightly said, practice with keeping this theory in back of mind will surely help new drivers and especially ladies to park their vehicles properly.

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by ElantraGT

Ram, thats a good illustration . I have seen lot of people trying to park by driving the nose of the car inbetween the two cars and get struck.

EGT,

Its pure and simple geometrics that dictates that it just can not be done in forward (within the standard 6 mts anyway). Even if you start by pushing your nose in first, you will end up geting your nose out, eventually before you can park the car.

Trys this and it works

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I avoid parallel parking :-) nice and simple

Anyway nice piece of information, will try it next time

Latheesh,

Mallu to Mallu - that is a typical Mallu reaction.

Cities in Gods Own country was really never over crowded until recently and we did not have to do much parallel parking in the past. So we could afford to avoid it in the past. I learnd this trick from my dad's old driving mannual - from his days as a student in Arizona, USA in the early 1960s. People always used to wonder how I find parking spaces where others could not get any.

Now situation is different - right?

Latheesh try this next time, it works.

Best Regards & Drive/Ride Safe

Ram

[predatorwheelz]

Good article. However, going by my experience, there are just 2 kinds of drivers in this world - those who can parallel park, and those who cant!

I'm fortunate to be in the first lot. However, have always treated parallel parking as an instinct thing, rather than measuring so accurately.

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by ranjitss

will surely help new drivers and especially ladies to park their vehicles properly.

Ranjit,

The last bit is really not true ( not always)!

In my experience, ladies train better if they have a good tacher. They pay attention to all aspects of what the driving instructer is saying as they may not be be very familiar with the environment inside a car. This is equally true for men who is starting from scratch. So if the traine himself knows this technique or the theory he can explain this to the ward.

The instructors in schools in Dubai for example are excellent and they explain this well and drill you in it.

Because of this I openly admit that my wife, who has been driving only for about 15 years compare to my 32 years, is at parallet parking than I am.

The instructors here give a lot of tips to the ladies to do the parkig properly - the ladies really by-heart it and follow (unfortunately or fortunately, I got my license in the Gulf by doing only a road driving test as my Indian license was ove 20 years when I had landed here (as per rules then) so I did not have benifit of working with an instructor here).

Best Regrds & Drive/Ride Safe

Ram

[dev_kudle]

Hi

Nice information. I was wandering for this information untill now.
I learnt this trick on my own after some practice.
However, felt very irritated when I find that, the rear or front car moved out and another car has been parked on that place, and that too close to my car. It becomes impossible to get your car out in such situation.

[ranjitss]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

Ranjit,

The last bit is really not true ( not always)!

In my experience, ladies train better if they have a good tacher. They pay attention to all aspects of what the driving instructer is saying as they may not be be very familiar with the environment inside a car. This is equally true for men who is starting from scratch. So if the traine himself knows this technique or the theory he can explain this to the ward.

The instructors in schools in Dubai for example are excellent and they explain this well and drill you in it.

Because of this I openly admit that my wife, who has been driving only for about 15 years compare to my 32 years, is at parallet parking than I am.

The instructors here give a lot of tips to the ladies to do the parkig properly - the ladies really by-heart it and follow (unfortunately or fortunately, I got my license in the Gulf by doing only a road driving test as my Indian license was ove 20 years when I had landed here (as per rules then) so I did not have benifit of working with an instructor here).

Best Regrds & Drive/Ride Safe

Ram

Good to know that your wife has been trained well by a good trainer.
I have seen women drivers usually struggle even in normal parking slots in the basement parking.

[shiva_cool87]

I love to parallel park ! The joy you get after parking the car is unexplainable !

[Hurrycane12]

Very Informative and helpful tips Ram.

[Shan2nu]

Or, you can just do this. LOL

YouTube - Tightest Parallel Parking

Shan2nu

[longhorn]

The fact of the matter is more than 90% od the people in India don't know this technique. They just go in front first and then either struggle to park properly or park with either the front or rear jutting out of line. I have seen people giving me the looks like 'what the hell is he doing' when I start reversing in to 'how the hell did he do that' when it slots in perfectly first time around. Another common mistake is reversing by sticking your head out from the driver's side window as if there will never ever be an obstruction on the left side. One should always reverse by looking back through the middle of the two front seats. The left ORVM will come in handy here while parallel parking next to a kerb by switching your view between the two and not forgetting to check where your bonnet line is.

[watashi75]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

Or, you can just do this. LOL

Shan2nu

Any videos on how to take the car out afterwards?