[sudharma]

Originally Posted by dev_kudle

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.

Hai,
I ended stuck in a similar situation with my Honda Civic in the late 70's in Abudhabi. Fortunately for me, 2 gentlemen ( "Pathans" ) rectified the situation by lifting the rear of the car and pointing it outwards clearing the front end of the rear car.

I helped a gentleman in Bangalore to get his Maruthi 800 out of a similar situation not by lifting, but by us bouncing the rear of the car up and down and pushing sideways on the rebound a few times to clear the obstacle. (May not be easy with bigger cars)

[ajitkommini]

Of course if you happen to live in Bangalore then you also have to fend-off the idiot who tries to nose into the parking spot as soon as you are ready to reverse into it!

[Count]

Originally Posted by ajitkommini

Of course if you happen to live in Bangalore then you also have to fend-off the idiot who tries to nose into the parking spot as soon as you are ready to reverse into it!

Actually had to face exactly this while parking near the ISKCON temple on Jan 1. As I was trying to reverse into the parking slot, I see this idiot on a Tavera trying to nose in. Finally had to get my wife to stand and reserve the space.

Thanks for the reverse parking tips!

[mooza]

Originally Posted by Count

Actually had to face exactly this while parking near the ISKCON temple on Jan 1. As I was trying to reverse into the parking slot, I see this idiot on a Tavera trying to nose in. Finally had to get my wife to stand and reserve the space.

Thanks for the reverse parking tips!

Ha Ha ! In my case I was once trying to reverse in with a lot of struggle, when a car parked at the kerb (behind my vacant slot) moved suddenly and precisely into my vacant spot. The driver just got down and walked away, leaving me lost & stranded !

Great tips on reverse parking, will definitely use them.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

Hope someone benefits from this!Ram

I just wanted to say more my heartfelt Thanks to you. Last Friday, I'd to do a parallel parking in a crowded place between an Esteem & Santro & the very moment, the pictures posted in this thread came to my mind & I followed the steps religiously. Voila!!! it was not only easy but to my surprise I'd parked even close to the footpath with my car very little exposed to the road.

Thank you so much.

[deepclutch]

Here is a Video I found which shows what nair ji explained in his first post.Hope it is useful.



Is better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRoOFwKkAQc

[Samurai]

In United States, every drivers license holder will know this technique. In fact, most people there flunk the DL test during parallel parking test. Therefore, driving instructors put lot of stress on teaching parallel parking to every student.

I rarely get to use parallel parking since I always lived in areas that didn't have parallel parking, but there are always times you need it.

Few months back there was this funny situation. My wife had to park near a hospital, and found just enough space for parallel parking at one place, there was no other spot. She doesn't like parallel parking, but since there was no choice, she started doing it. The parking lot security guys started questioning her strange maneuvering, probably making the usual comment about lady drivers. About 30 seconds later my wife walked off after executing a perfect parallel park and leaving the collective jaws of the security guys on the floor. Imagine parking lot security guys being unfamiliar with parallel parking.

All that struggle to pass the US driver's license test in the 90s really paid off for my wife on that day.

[aargee]

Just had a question in my mind (I think I'm getting deeply involved or fascinated)
1. Is there a rule or simple steps to follow when cars are not in equal in length? This means, if car #1 is longer than car #2 in the posted picture?

2. How much of distance (gap between both the cars when in parallel) should be maintained between car #1 & car #2 in Figure 1. I'm asking this because, I'm assuming that if car #1 & car #2 are too close, then car #1 is bound to hit the footpath as shown in Figure #3. If not, after parking, car #1 will not be in align to car #3 & car #1 as show in Figure #4.

If the above statements are confusing, pls let me know if I can modify the picture of yours to represent pictoritically. Thanks.

[Gandhi]

This thread has helped me a lot. I am a newbie driver and the pictorial posted in first page comes to my mind every time I have to park parallel to footpath.

A BIG THANKS to everybody who has contributed to this thread.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by Samurai

In United States, every drivers license holder will know this technique. In fact, most people there flunk the DL test during parallel parking test. Therefore, driving instructors put lot of stress on teaching parallel parking to every student.

Yep - couple of my friends failed once in NJ road test due to touching the kerb while parallel parking.
While I attempted my road test in a rainy day with violently shaky knees (), I passed with flying colors on the first attempt!
Parallel parking comes especially handy in busy city street side parking.

[lsp]

Parallel parking (while reversing) is definitely a boon in the tight city spaces. the problem of someone behind you nosing in remains though. If you get to observe the chauffers of huge luxury sedans park their cars then their act is nothing short of spectacular.

@Aargee
Valid point boss

Some of the things in the first post are not to be taken word by word esp. regarding the positioning of the cars. perhaps it was written keeping in mind similar length cars. But in reality it would be different if the car lengths vary. a good example is that the way to park normal Accent and Accent Viva would be different keeping in mind the short boot of Viva. Its something you get with practice but the underlying rules remain the same.

There are a numerous parking games where u can get the basic of parking.

Learn to Park - Free Drivers Ed Game Online - Courtesy of Drivers Ed Direct
Peugeot 107 Car Parking Perfection Game

Note: This is just to illustrate the funda of parking. Like swimming, parking is something you would have to practice in person to learn.

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by aargee

Just had a question in my mind (I think I'm getting deeply involved or fascinated)
1. Is there a rule or simple steps to follow when cars are not in equal in length? This means, if car #1 is longer than car #2 in the posted picture?

2. How much of distance (gap between both the cars when in parallel) should be maintained between car #1 & car #2 in Figure 1. I'm asking this because, I'm assuming that if car #1 & car #2 are too close, then car #1 is bound to hit the footpath as shown in Figure #3. If not, after parking, car #1 will not be in align to car #3 & car #1 as show in Figure #4.

If the above statements are confusing, pls let me know if I can modify the picture of yours to represent pictoritically. Thanks.

aargee,

The procedure shown in the picture evolved for the "Standard Parking Slot". Internationally accepted standard for a parallel parkin slot is 6 Mts Length and 2.5 mts width.

If the cars 2 and three are parked with in their own slots - doesn't matter if Car 2 parked towards the back end its slot and if car 3 is parked to the front end of its own slot - this procedure would work no matter what the length of Car 1 is.

In Driver training you actually have to park in to the slot which is denoted just by 4 poles which is put at the corners of a 6 mts x 2.5 mts rectangle box.

Trust this clears your query.

Best Regards & Drive/Ride Safe

Ram

[longhorn]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

The procedure shown in the picture evolved for the "Standard Parking Slot". Internationally accepted standard for a parallel parkin slot is 6 Mts Length and 2.5 mts width.

The only issue here being that in India you'll be lucky if you can find yourself a parking slot, let alone a standardized one. So here, one would require a lot more skill to slot it in right. Also it is easier done with a small car than a large one. That said, the illustration here should be used as a reference, a very good one at that, to understand the technique used to parallel park. It all boils down to practice. Practice makes perfect.

[Latheesh]

I was not a big fan of parallel parking, but tried it yesterday (using my little sparky) at a very tight parking slot which many people did not even consider. I used the basic technique as per the first mail and could do it in less than 5 seconds (thanks to the size of the car and absense of boot)

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by longhorn

The only issue here being that in India you'll be lucky if you can find yourself a parking slot, let alone a standardized one. So here, one would require a lot more skill to slot it in right. Also it is easier done with a small car than a large one. That said, the illustration here should be used as a reference, a very good one at that, to understand the technique used to parallel park. It all boils down to practice. Practice makes perfect.

I second the above statement 100%

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I was not a big fan of parallel parking, but tried it yesterday (using my little sparky) at a very tight parking slot which many people did not even consider. I used the basic technique as per the first mail and could do it in less than 5 seconds (thanks to the size of the car and absense of boot)

Best Regards & Drive/Ride Safe

Ram