Parallel Parking

fallbayuk

fallbayuk

fallbayuk

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Joined
7 Nov 2003
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GF asked a question last night that i couldnt give a decent answer to. What is it about parallel parking that enables you to park into a tight space between vehicles that you can not drive straight into? Or theoretically could you drive forwards into any space that you can parallel park in to?

As you may have guessed im bored in the office on christmas eve.
 
If the rear wheels did the steering then you would be able to do it forwards too, just gives you the capability to bring the front end right in without moving backwards very much when at full lock, you cant to that forwards, the rear sticks out too far. If that makes sense.
 
lukechad said:
If the rear wheels did the steering then you would be able to do it forwards too, just gives you the capability to bring the front end right in without moving backwards very much when at full lock, you cant to that forwards, the rear sticks out too far. If that makes sense.
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Yep that'll do. Cheers!
 
If you want to really mess with your head, consider that, due to only one end of the car steering, it's technically possibly to get into a space which you then can't get out of, no matter how good a driver you are :)
 
another garage near us have a ramp in the workshop that you can drive onto in one go but requires about a 25 point turn to get off and out the workshop again.
 
therealnerd2 said:
Maybe I'm missing something - why can't you just leave the same way you came in?
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I think he is saying that if you P-Park using reverse into a very tight spot u cant get out of it using reverse.. but ofc u can go out straight forward the way you came.. although why you'd wanna reverse out of a P-Park i dunno ^_^ hehe
 
Vertigo1 said:
If you want to really mess with your head, consider that, due to only one end of the car steering, it's technically possibly to get into a space which you then can't get out of, no matter how good a driver you are :)
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Not in a FWD ;) Handbrake + full lock + wheelspin = win :p
 
Noto said:
I think he is saying that if you P-Park using reverse into a very tight spot u cant get out of it using reverse.. but ofc u can go out straight forward the way you came.. although why you'd wanna reverse out of a P-Park i dunno ^_^ hehe
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not thought this through have you, apply your brain some more and you will realise what he says is true.
 
Well I'm going to spill the beans on parallel parking - it's all about getting the end that can't be steered as close to the kerb in the first instance. So reversing in enables you to do that but you could park in the gap driving forwards but you'd need to mount the pavement to with the front wheels so that you could get the rear wheels close to the kerb before cutting back.
 
Vertigo1 said:
If you want to really mess with your head, consider that, due to only one end of the car steering, it's technically possibly to get into a space which you then can't get out of, no matter how good a driver you are :)
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Got an example? I don't see how this is true, by reversing every move exactly you should be able to get out of any place you got into, assuming you are on solid ground.
 
Dogbreath said:
Got an example? I don't see how this is true, by reversing every move exactly you should be able to get out of any place you got into, assuming you are on solid ground.
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Speed + handbrake.


Or, of course if someone else parks too close to you after you're done :p
 
Dogbreath said:
Got an example? I don't see how this is true, by reversing every move exactly you should be able to get out of any place you got into, assuming you are on solid ground.
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reversing into a space, the front wheels steer, but due to the direction that you're travelling, its effectively rear wheel steering. you can't replicate that going the other way.
 
Dogbreath said:
Got an example? I don't see how this is true, by reversing every move exactly you should be able to get out of any place you got into, assuming you are on solid ground.
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I don't think that's true for parallel parks. However, it is for certain other spaces (eg: that ramp someone said in the thread up a bit).

edit: to clarify, imo, if you can get into a parallel park, you can get out by reversing the actions.

However, there may be other things where you can't do the opposite (like if you go in forwards, but have to leave backwards, so can't get the necessary turning angle).
 
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-westy- said:
reversing into a space, the front wheels steer, but due to the direction that you're travelling, its effectively rear wheel steering. you can't replicate that going the other way.
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...and when you come back out, surely if all steering and speed movements were the exact opposite of it going in, it'll go straight back out?
 
It might be all the drinking I have been doing, but I cannot work out how you would be able to parallel park and not be able to simply drive forwards out of the space you have parked in. When you went in with full lock, your bonnet cleared the back of the car in front and you stopped short of the car behind. Without anything else moving, you could simply apply full lock and drive on out of the space.

I really cant see a way you would be able to get yourself stuck whilst parallel parking...
 
Hmm interesting, the only thing I can think of is tail-swing , i.e. on a large coach or something, but with regards to parallel parking this would only be a problem if the driver straightend up closer to a wall that happened to be there...
 
divine` said:
...and when you come back out, surely if all steering and speed movements were the exact opposite of it going in, it'll go straight back out?
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This is the problem, you can't do the exact reverse/opposite going the other way. When you steer going forward, the rear of the car is effectively "dragged" along. When you reverse, you're pushing the rear of the car rather than dragging it and it's not always possible to make the rear wheels (which can't steer) follow the exact same path they took before.
 
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