Why it's impossible to nose into my parking spot, but reversing is easy

If I can reverse park my car in the limited space available, I should be able to go nose-in too.

BHPian thirdmainroad recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

When two cars are parked in my house, I have to open the gates out to get the smaller car in.

Now I can reverse into the spot quite easily, but for the life of me, cannot go in nose first.

Are there situations where this is possible or are my driving skills not as good as everyone tells me they are? My reasoning is if I can reverse in, I should be able to nose-dive in!

Here's what BHPian Rehaan had to say about the matter:

Ever wonder why parallel parking is always done by reversing into the spot?

Ever seen how much more maneuverable a shopping cart is if you're pulling it towards you, rather than pushing it forward?

Ever wonder why forklifts maneuvering tight spaces in warehouses and picking up palettes with precision are rear-wheel steered (ie. effectively "driving in reverse)?

Simply put, the way the steering geometry works front-turning wheels offer way less maneuverability than rear-steering.

So then why aren't all cars rear-wheel-steering instead?

Because the trade-off is stability and handling behaviour at higher speeds.

Here's what BHPian androdev had to say about the matter:

Car steering is based on Ackermann Steering geometry which allows different turning radii for different wheels thus avoiding tire sliding.

The turning centre lies along the real axle which results in different types of swing/sweep when you steer forward vs steer reverse. Having a good understanding of the differences between fwd and reverse parallel parking will help you figure out other scenarios.

Say you are in Lane-1 and want to park the car in Lane-2. As you can see, steering in a forward direction swings your front-right wheel all the way till the red line, it also requires the entire space in front of you to be free without any other cars and you will end up parking away from the kerb. During this manoeuvre, the car pivots around point C and then E. That's why you can do forward parallel parking only if you have acres of free space in the front.

On the other hand, steering it in the reverse direction limits the swing of your front-right wheel till the purple line only, the space on the right can be occupied by another car (which can actually serve as a guide), and more importantly, you are perfectly close to the kerb after the manoeuvre. During this manoeuvre, the car pivots around point C and then D.

In general, during forward steering, the front wheels move very far from the vehicle's centre line while the rear wheels barely move. This makes it manoeuvring in tight spaces very difficult with forward steering.

PS: Parking will become far easier if you can make those gates swing all the way (180deg) to be flush with the compound wall (shift the hinges to the outside). You can certainly do that for one shutter without interfering with your neighbour.

Here is a cool infographic (from the ZF website) to extend our understanding to cars with rear-wheel steering that is becoming common in high-end cars:

Here's what BHPian venkyhere had to say about the matter:

Even if not technically inclined, even if you don't "think" about this, instinctively, what strikes you easily - one end of my car has more freedom to move laterally than the other. So when moving into tight spaces, let me not restrict/trap the 'freedom end' into a tighter space than what the other end is enjoying. Because if I do that, I am not 'fully utilizing' the maneuverability possible outside the tight spot.

Here's what BHPian Axe77 had to say about the matter:

I think there are more than enough explanations on how a car turns above. Just coming to the problem you’re trying to solve, here’s perhaps an alternate proposition to your predicament.

You can actually redesign and replace / modify your gate such that each gate has an additional hinge mechanism somewhere around the middle. That way it can fold along the outside of your house boundary wall as opposed to opening outward completely and reducing the space available for your car to turn.

Personally whether to park nose in / nose out for me depends on different considerations at different times. It depends on whether I prefer being “ready to drive out” vs what kind of access I need to my boot.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.