One of the aspects of driving that a lot of people have trouble with
is parking, so today we're going to demonstrate
reverse parking in a car park next to a car on the left, or on the
right - and then we're going to demonstrate
forward parking next to a car. With all of these exercises the idea is
to learn how to do them and then just keep on practicing until
you get good at them. Our friends at 21CC Broadcast
Productions have been kind enough to provide a drone
to allow us to show some overhead footage, and that will help to illustrate
exactly what's going on when you're doing forward and reverse parking.
The 3 line method requires you to drive in a straight line up towards
your chosen parking bay with your indicator on
and then proceed a further three lines. You stop when the white line
reaches a specific point on the passenger door - and that's specific to
you and your car, Now in this case we're
parking on the near side of the car as we approach.
We keep checking ahead regularly while we're counting the three lines and we
stop when we see that third line on the designated point on the door. We
then put the car into reverse gear. Optionally you can turn the indicator
off, and then you have a good look over your right shoulder,
in your central mirror, and over your left shoulder. Then you start to move,
turning the wheel sharply to full lock as you start moving.
When you determine that the car is almost straight you very quickly turn the
steering wheel one and a half turns and stop the car in the middle of the
parking bay. Some people have trouble trying to
work out where to start counting from, so the easiest thing to do is just to
remember that line 0 and line 1 are the lines that surround your chosen
bay. Then just proceed up to line 3 stopping in the usual spot. Put the car
into reverse and turn the indicator off.
NOTE: in some jurisdictions you may need to leave the indicator on so you
need to check that depending on where you are in the world.
If you have stick-on parking mirrors on your side mirrors it will make life a
lot easier for you because you'll be able to see the white lines next to you
as you reverse in. Then get yourself straight and
continue into the bay until you feel that you're central.
You can do that either by looking at your camera or just by general
observation. if you're not good with numbers you can
always use the alphabet so instead of 1, 2 and 3 it's A, B and C and
everything else is the same. Drive up to line C. When
you get to that line everything else is the same.
Put the car into reverse have a good look around and when you start moving,
turn to full lock. You'll get pretty close to that other car
as you come in, and you'll cut across the white line just a little bit if you're
on the normal path, That's OK. When you get straight
just straighten your front wheels up and continue into the bay.
You can use your camera at this point to work out whether you're far
enough in - otherwise just use your general observation.
Because the reverse park requires you to turn exactly 90 degrees it's very
important that on your approach you keep a straight path. In this case
we're going to park on the far side of the parked car
but everything is still the same. You just choose your bay and then count forward
3 lines. Of course you would be looking in all directions when you're
reversing, but in this particular case you'll need to pay particular attention
to the car that's already there next to you. You'll need to look
over your shoulder at that car as you get to about that point -
just to make sure you're not going to hit it - and then everything else is the
same. If you've got reversing sensors they'll
probably be going off when you get close to that car -
and stop in the usual spot. How does the three line method work?
It requires the bays to be the same width
and in this case they're 2.4 meters or 8 feet apart.
If your local parking areas don't have bays of 2.4 meters
width then it's not a problem. Just adjust your turning point
to accommodate the width of your parking spaces. It's only a problem if they're an
inconsistent width but hopefully you won't have that on your
driving test. We alluded to it earlier but how do
you know when to stop when you're reversing
into the parking bay? Well the easy way is to glance at your camera -
or you could line up on the car next to you if it was facing the same way.
Or you can glance out sideways and just stop when your shoulder reaches the
halfway point of the white lines. You should then
be positioned centrally in the parking bay.
OK, what about reverse parking on the other side?
It's a little bit different but you're still driving up while indicating,
and you drive past the bay and count three lines.
The difference is that this time you're looking directly out your driver's window
so in this particular car you'll be stopping the car when your steering
wheel is roughly in line with the 3rd line. But because you're sitting a bit
further back it's a little bit difficult to tell - but
you just need to practice and use your best judgment.
If you've got those small circular parking mirrors or a reversing camera
then you can see what's going on very early in the manoeuvre
and you'll be able to make any adjustments as you reverse
into the bay. Work out when to stop by either using the camera or just
stopping when your shoulder gets halfway along the bay.
The trick with forward parking is to give yourself a nice wide angle of
approach. This will help to ensure that you're as
straight as possible as you start to enter the bay.
It's very difficult to keep the front corner of your car in the bay
completely when you're driving in and that's compounded by the fact that you
can't really see where the corner of your car is.
So taking the widest and sharpest approach possible is important.
Here is another example of that forward parking manoeuvre, this time
showing you what might happen if there was a car parked on both sides.
We need to have the widest approach possible coming in.
This approach might not be quite wide enough and the front of the car
is poking out of the bay slightly. You would have a problem there if there was
a car on that side. So unless you can get a
really wide angle of approach, don't try and park between two cars. In this
case we're parking forwards with the car on the far
side, but nothing on the near side. With practice you'll
know when to turn. It's generally when your shoulder is halfway
between those two white lines on the previous bay.
But as you can see it's pretty tight getting in there - and then we have to
sort of track along that white line and then straighten up to get ourselves
central in the bay. Just look sideways and you'll see when you're halfway along
the line and then stop.
Now that's pretty much it - but if you like what you see
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We're not really into fancy graphics or musical scores but we hope that
this video helps you in your quest to get your driver's
licence. There will be some slight differences if you're driving a manual