Now one of the more challenging aspects of driving is the dreaded reverse parallel park
so today we're going to take you out and show you how to execute the reverse parallel park
in a series of easy steps. Once you've mastered it you'll be able to just call upon that any time
during your driving life. It's not actually that difficult - you just need to know how to do it
Now we're going to demonstrate the parking manoeuvres in a Toyota Camry. This car is
about 4.9 meters long which makes it about half a meter longer than your average driving school car,
so if I can park this one, you can certainly park a driving school car.
So we approach our chosen parking bay in a dead straight line.
That way we end up about an open-door width away from the car that's parked in front of our bay.
As we come up we check our mirror, we indicate towards the kerb and we apply the brakes. By the
time the front of our car reaches the back of the other car, we should be doing walking pace
only - and that will allow us to be precise about where we stop. You should stop when the
back of your car lines up with the back of the car that's parked in front of your chosen parking bay.
What that means is that when the backs of the cars line up, generally speaking the
external mirrors will also line up- but if you park next to a much smaller car
or a much bigger car, you just need to make a slight adjustment so that the backs do line up.
Once we've stopped completely we need to put the car into reverse and turn the indicator off.
Now in some jurisdictions you may need to leave your indicator on. In Western Australia you turn
the indicator off - but you must check your own local jurisdiction! Now the next step is optional,
but it does give you some orientation in terms of what a 45 degree angle looks like. So what we do
is we look out the driver's window and we pick an object that lines up with our external mirror and
that should give us an accurate 45 degree angle. Now exactly where on your mirror you should line
up will depend upon your seated position so if you have the seat way forward it's going to be
the edge of the mirror that's closest to the car. If you have the seat way back it's probably going
to be the edge that's away from the car, but most people will be somewhere around about the
middle of your mirror. But again it does depend on your car - some mirrors are positioned in slightly
different places on different models of cars. Once you've done that preparation and you're ready to
move you must check all around. So you must check over your right shoulder, in your central mirror
and, if you've got a camera, glance there at the same time and over your left shoulder. You also
need to look straight ahead to see if any cars are coming towards you because you cannot commence
your manoeuvre if there are cars coming towards you. You must wait for them to pass because the
nose of your car will potentially swing into their path and may cause them to have to stop.
Now we're just about to move - what you have to remember in some jurisdictions is that you're
not allowed to turn the steering wheel more than half a turn if the car's not moving.
This is all to do with vehicle management and tyre wear and all that sort of stuff.
In a lot of jurisdictions you are allowed to steer the car when it's not moving and that simplifies
the manoeuvre because you can get into the position where you need to turn from, stop the car and then
turn fully. In Western Australia the car must be moving at any time in the manoeuvre when
you're steering. You can stop from time to time during the manoeuvre but you cannot steer more
than half a turn while the car is stationary. If you do, you'll lose a point on your driving test
under the category of Vehicle Management and if you're in the habit of doing static steering or
dry steering all the way through your test, that could be enough to cause you to fail. As I said
it's only applicable in certain jurisdictions so you must check your local rules. So once
we get moving we keep on looking all around and we get the car to 45 degrees.
You'll be at 45 degrees when you're looking straight out across your steering wheel
at the object that you nominated as being the 45 degree point. If you haven't used that step, then
you can just "wing it" and work out when you think you're at 45 degrees. Once you get to 45 degrees
with the car still moving just a little bit you straighten your wheels up completely - that will
normally be about one and a half turns of the steering wheel. You continue back in a straight
line on that 45 degree angle until your rear wheel reaches the edge of the parking space. Now this is
the rear wheel that's away from the kerb. Now the alternative way of working it out is to just get
your passenger side mirror adjacent to the rear corner of the car that's parked in front of you.
That's not as precise but sometimes that's the only way you can do it if you don't have things
to help you such as stick-on 'blind spot' mirrors that show you where your back tyre is on the road.
Once you get to that designated point you turn the wheel away from the kerb fully
and the nose of the car will swing into the bay.
You continue into the bay until the car is completely straight, and at that point
you straighten your front wheels up by turning the steering wheel about one and a half turns.
All the way through this manoeuvre you'll be having regular checks over your right shoulder,
left shoulder, in your central mirror, in your camera, in your side mirrors,
and just generally looking around. When you're far enough back in the bay, you stop.
Now when you're trying to determine whether you're central in the bay or
not while you're still in reverse, you can have a quick glance at your camera, and just
just look around, and you'll be able to work out whether you need to move forwards a bit.
So here's the manoeuvre again at normal speed. So here comes the car down the road
in a dead straight line - slowing down, indicator on,
and stopping when the mirrors line up - and coincidentally the backs line up.
Into reverse, indicator off, moving into the bay, looking around regularly,
getting the back wheel to the edge of the bay
and then swinging the nose of the car in. It doesn't take long - it's just a series of steps
that you have to tie together. Just going back into the bay there - far enough back.
Sometimes there will be a car behind you. Just stopping and coming forward. Pretty easy!
And here's the ground level shot. Here comes the car - dead straight down the road, indicator on,
pulling up next to the car in front, put it into reverse, turn the indicator off, the reversing
lights come on and looking around, swinging the car into the bay. Getting to 45 degrees,
straightening up the front wheels, continuing on that angle until the rear wheel reaches the edge
of the bay, and then turning the steering wheel away from the curb fully to swing the car in.
Normally there would be a car behind you. That's the very reason you'd be
doing the reverse parallel park - so you've got to watch for the
car behind. Make sure you don't get too close - just stop there and centralise.
Again, pretty straightforward. So things to remember:- always look behind and all around you
before you commence reversing and continue to look behind it all around you while you're reversing.
Don't commence your manoeuvre if there are vehicles coming towards you. The front of
your car might swing into their path and that may cause you to fail your test.
Now there are two key aspects to successfully completing the reverse parallel park. One is to
turn the car to an accurate 45 degrees, and the other is to get the driver's side rear
wheel to the outer edge of the parking space before swinging the car in. And only attempt
the reverse parallel park in your driving test if 1) you're specifically asked to perform it, or 2)
the limited available parking spaces dictate that a reverse parallel park is required.
So just in summary, the reverse parallel park is a simple manoeuvre once you know how to do it.
You've just got to practice it regularly and remember it's "Perfect Practice Makes Perfect"!
So hopefully you've made it this far through the video. Thank you very much for watching,
and if you like what you've seen please subscribe and help to spread the word. As I've said before,
we're not very much into fancy graphics and musical scores - but if what you've seen today can
help you in your quest to become a better driver, then that's what it's all about. So obviously
there are differences between driving tests in various States and also in various countries. For
instance in Western Australia, if you need to do a reverse parallel park it's going to be because
there's only a confined space to park in. Whereas in some other states of Australia
you simply have to pull up next to a car and park behind it with unlimited space behind. Yes, sure,
you have to park within a certain distance but the pressure isn't on to the same extent.
In other jurisdictions you might not do the reverse parallel park at all. But the main
point is that it's a driving skill that you need to have. You might find yourself in a very crowded
area with only one parking space remaining, and a lot of drivers would drive straight past and
try and park somewhere else. But if you're one of those drivers who can execute the reverse parallel
park confidently and competently, then that's going to be a great skill to have going forward.
Good luck, safe driving and best wishes from sunny Perth Western Australia.