[HOW TO PARALLEL PARK TO PASS ROAD TEST :: STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS]
Hi there smart drivers, Rick with Smart
Drive Test talking to you today about
parallel parking.
Whoo-hoo-hoo.. the dreaded parallel park!
And I am not laughing at you - I share
your frustration in the challenge of
parallel parking for the purposes of a
road test. When I did my instructors'
course, I had to do a parallel park and
not only that, I had to do step-by-step
instructions of how I would teach a
student. Now up to that point, I'd been
parallel parking 18-wheelers, so I
thought, you know, parallel parking your
car - not too much trouble. But when I was
on my practical test for my instructors'
license, all I remember thinking was,
"don't hit the curb, don't hit the curb,
don't hit the curb!" So your
frustrations and challenges with
parallel parking are well-founded. And
today, hopefully we're going to shed some
light on that. Now one point that I do
want to make about frustrations and
parallel parking for the purposes of a
road test is, if you do hit the curb
don't freak out. It's not an automatic
fail on a road test if you hit the curb:
simply pull forward, adjust the vehicle
and back into the space.
Don't give up on that. And the other note
about parallel parking -
practice practice practice. And when you're
practicing in your neighborhood
and you're parallel parking off cars, do it
two times and then go and find another
car. Otherwise people are looking out the
window, wondering what you're doing.
So today I'm going to talk about
parallel parking and shed some light on
how to do that maneuver for the purposes
of a road test. We'll be right back with that
information.
Stick around!
[OPENING CREDITS & MUSIC]
So what we're going to do today is I'm
going to go over the step-by-step
instructions here in the studio with you
and then afterwards we're going to go
out to the car and we're going to
parallel park and give you some
practical demonstration on how to go
about parallel parking. As well, you may
be saying to yourself, "now why do I have
to parallel park because I'm never going
to parallel park after I get my license
anyway?" And we know as driving
instructors that a great many people
never parallel park again after they get
their license. However, it teaches you due
care and control of the vehicle and how
to control the primary controls of the
vehicle: the steering wheel, the throttle, and
the brake. And when you are able to
proficiently execute slow speed
maneuvers, it makes you a better driver overall.
So this is going to transfer into your
larger driving. So let's get started with
parallel parking. Now for the purposes of
your road test, driving examiners are
never going to make you park between two
vehicles. It's just questionable on
their part in terms of safety, and the
fact is it's just too daunting for new
drivers who are stressed out because of
the test. And you know, their driving
skills are not at a high level. So most
of the time, they're just going to make
you parallel park off one vehicle. There
will not be a vehicle behind you. So just
keep that in mind when you're parallel
parking. That may ease some of your tension
when you actually go for the road test.
Now if you're taking driving lessons,
your driving instructor may in fact make
you parallel park between two vehicles.
But for the most part on a road test...
unless they're a real ogre, they're not going to
make you parallel park between two
vehicles. They're just going to make you park
behind one vehicle. So that's the
first thing - get that out of the way. The
next thing is... so first thing you do
when you pull up to the car, make sure
the space is legal. Of course the driving examiner's
not going to try and trick you,
it's going to be a legal space. So
you wanna make sure there's no
fire hydrants or you're not parking in
front of somebody's laneway or whatnot.
And you pull up to beside the other
vehicle and you want the rear bumpers of
the vehicles to be in line with each other. And
when you pull up here beside the other
vehicle, you want their to rear bumpers
in line with each other and when you
look out
the passenger window--the rear passenger
window--
you should be able to see the back
corner of the vehicle through your rear
passenger window. That's how you know
that the rear bumpers will be lined up.
As well, this space here between the two
vehicles should be 1 meter or three feet.
So you pull up beside the vehicle - as you
approach the vehicle, mirror, signal shoulder
check. So you put your signal on, you
shoulder check and you looked in your
mirror to make sure that you could park
there. As well, as soon as you get up
beside the other vehicle and you put
three feet between you and the other
vehicle and you're lined up with the
bumpers on the rear, put your vehicle in
"reverse." That way traffic behind you
knows that you're going to back up and
you're going to parallel park.
The other thing you want to do as soon
as you stop, breathe, put it in
reverse,
take a moment and find and locate your
45° degree marker. And you can see here in
the image how you locate the 45° degrees.
Most of the time, the 45° degrees is
either going to be somewhere around the
post in the front windshield on your
left side - so you're going to find your 45°
degree mark.
So the next thing you do, you find your
45° degree mark--you've already got
it in reverse--you turn the steering
wheel all the way to the right, and start
to back up. And you back up until you are
at 45° degrees and you are facing direct
on your 45° degree mark. When you hit your
45° degree mark, you bring the steering
wheel back to straight. On most
passenger vehicles--cars & light trucks--
your're going to bring it back one and a half
turns, until your wheels are straight.
Then you're going to continue to back up
into the space until you are
approximately one-third--so this is the
post--one-third past the back corner of
that vehicle before you turn the
steering wheel all the way the left. And
the vehicle comes around and you back up
until this vehicle is straight in the
space. Once you get the vehicle straight
in the space, you move forward until you
can just see the top of the rear bumper
on the vehicle in front of you. When
you're finished parallel parking and you
get the vehicle into the space you stop,
you secure the vehicle by putting it in
"Park." Most of you are going to be driving an
automatic transmission. Put it into park and apply
the parking brake. For those of you driving
a manual--if you're brave enough to drive
a manual on your road test--put it into a
low gear--first gear--apply the parking
brake, secure the vehicle and shut it off.
Now when you get the vehicle into the
space behind the other vehicle, the examiner--
most of the time--is going to open the
door and s/he will have a look to see how
far you are from the curb. Now you should
be 6-9" inches from the curb or 15 to 20
centimeters from the curb behind this
vehicle. The one other factor that you
need to keep in mind is when you're
pulling up to the space and locating the
space as to where you're going to
parallel park - this vehicle here, if this
vehicle is wider or farther away from
the curb, then you need to go deeper into
the space. So you'll need to go farther
down the hood, probably halfway down the
hood before you turn the steering wheel
all the way the left to get into that
space. So quick recap on how you parallel
park. To set up, you come up to the space,
you locate the space - the space is legal?
Mirror, signal, shoulder check to make
sure that you can pull into the space.
Pull up to this...
beside this vehicle so you're three feet
away from the vehicle or 1 meter. Stop
your vehicle so that you can see the
rear corner here--the taillight of the
vehicle--through the window of the rear
passenger window on your vehicle. Stop,
put the vehicle into reverse right away
so that vehicles behind you will know
that you're backing up into that space.
Locate your 45° degree mark, turn your
steering wheel all to the right, back up
until you're facing square on your 45°
degree mark. When you get to your 45° degree
mark, bring your steering wheel back to
straight--one-and-a-half turns--and back up
until the back corner is one-third to
one-half way down the hood, depending on
how far this vehicle is away from the
curb or how wide it is. When it's
one-half to one-third, bring your
steering wheel--turn your steering wheel
all the way to the left--into the space.
When the vehicle is straight in the
space behind the vehicle in front of you,
stop, put it in a forward gear, and pull up
until you can just see the top
of the bumper - the rear bumper of the
vehicle in front of you. Stop, secure the
vehicle
by applying the parking brake and
putting it into park. The driving examiner will look
to see how far you are from the curb.
All going well, you're 6-9" inches or 15 to
20 centimeters from the curb. So what
we're going to do, we're going to go out
to the car, to go for a drive,
find a car and we're going to show you
how to parallel park in a car.
Locate the space, that vehicle's about average
normal....so we pull up. Stop so I can see the
rear of the vehicle just straight down
there. Pick out my 45° degree angle, which
is this bump in the hedge here. I've got in
"reverse," so that I can see. All the way to the right with the steering wheel.
Ok I'm facing my 45° mark - right there. I come
halfway down the hood... right about there.
All the way to the left with the steering wheel.
Back all the way in. We're straight and we stop...
into first gear. Steer all the way back, and
pull up and stop so we can see the top of the bumper. Secure the vehicle.
[MUSIC: MEAN STREETZ--Downloaded from YouTube's Audio Library]
So in conclusion, today we talked about
parallel parking. We talked about the
setup: making sure that when you pull up
to the parking space that it is legal
and that you can park there - that you're
not parking in front of fire hydrant
other places that you cannot park. You
pull up beside the other vehicle - three
feet from the other vehicle. And you
should be able to see the rear of that
vehicle--its tail light in the back
corner of the passenger side window on
the door in your vehicle. And then we
showed you a clip of that. You pick out
your 45° degree mark. You turn your
steering wheel all the way to the right,
and back up until you are facing that 45°
degree mark. And then you come down the
hood a third to half way, depending on
how far that other vehicle is away from
the curb. If it's close you don't go down
the hood very far; if it's farther away
or a bigger vehicle then you're going to
go farther down the hood - so deeper into
the parking space. When you get a third
of the way down the hood or halfway down
the hood, you're going to turn your
steering wheel all the way to the left.
And back in until the vehicle is straight.
And then pull up just so you can see the
top of the bumper of the vehicle in
front of you. Stop and secure the vehicle
so it will be in "Park." Most of you will
be driving an automatic transmission, so you'll put it into
park and then put the parking brake on
and stop. And tell the examiner that you're
done.
Oftentimes the examiner--all going well,
you didn't hit the curb and whatnot--will
open the door and check to see how far
you are from the curb. And
ideally you should be 6-9" inches or 15 to
20 centimeters, if you're measuring in
metric. That's how you do a parallel park.
Question for my smart drivers: what
technique do you use to parallel park?
And for those veteran drivers, do you
still parallel park? Because we know as
driving instructors, that seventy percent--
approximately seventy percent of drivers--
do not parallel park after they get
their licenses. It's just too daunting of a task.
So leave a comment down in the comment
section there -
answer the question. All that helps out
the new drivers learning to get their
license.
I'm Rick with Smart Drive Test. Thanks
very much for watching. If you like what you
see here share, subscribe, leave a comment
down in the comment section. All that
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license
and help you be successful in that
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Thanks again for watching. Good luck on
your road test. Remember pick the best
answer not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.
[CLOSING CREDITS, MUSIC & BLOOPER]
Ohhhh, let's see how that works?
How's that workin? Looks pretty good. I
look pretty hot don't I? [LAUGHING] I am a good
looking guy...
yeah I am... yes I am! I don't know... the
lighting looks pretty good too!? Good
frame, got that setup. I don't think it's
going to go anywhere!? We are ready to go
and do the video on parallel parking...
YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!