I don’t want to sound like a grumpy old man, but drivers under a certain age (not exclusively, of course) nowadays all-too often exhibit utter cluelessness when trying to parallel park. Sometimes, I just stand and stare in amazement as they try repeatedly to head into a parking spot. When did they stop teaching (or testing) this rather basic driving skill anyway?
Tell me about it. As you write, Richmond, VA has announced that parking more than a foot from the curb is going to be a ticketable offense. You should hear the screaming going on! Expecting people to actually get within an inch or two of the curb, how Communist can you get?
That’s always been a ticketable offense around here.
It is six inches here. Also if you cant parellel park at that six inches you will not pass your drivers test. last month I grabbed s few pics of a new escalade parked about two feet from the curb, after watching the attempt the lady who got out was (IMHO) much too small for such a large SUV. I guess the failed attempt at parking proved that fact, at least to me. I’ll see if i still have the pics on my phone.
Sorry it is a terrible pic but the ligt was non existant and it was very crappy night. Also on a one way street with no cars behind it.
In NC, at least in the Charlotte area, most of the on-street parking on busy roads is marked by hash marks. Pretty clear the area you are supposed to stay in. Especially have to love the people that try to squeeze into slightly smaller spaces and do not leave enough space making it difficult for those in front and back to leave.
IIRC the Cali vehicle code gives you 18″. I’m not sure what NV gives you.
When I got my license in 1985, I deliberately took my test in the next town over because it was said that they didn’t require you to parallel park. Indeed; my driving test consisted of a drive around the block.
Then in college in 1988 I had a girlfriend at a nearby college where the only parking available was at the curb. I had plenty of reason to learn to parallel park then!
Ah, but there’s something just a little unique about that picture: This is apparently a one-way street, and the offender is parked on the left hand side. My office overlooks a similar street, and for the most part it’s the left side parkers who have the most difficulty with parallel parking. I think it has something to do with having difficulty translating the normal spatial difference between your noggin and the curb to the opposite side.
Then again, maybe not.
When I have to park in a LH parallel spot I don’t do as well as the more common RH situation.
They do still teach it and test it around here. In fact that was something my son got points off of when he did his test. He did do it in a Panther, though it was his choice over his Taurus. He preferred the Panther’s better rear visibility and tighter steering angle despite the fact that he was taught in an identical Taurus.
Parallel parking was in my Driver’s Ed test; but I probably haven’t done it 15 years, everything is angle parking around here. I’ll admit I would hate to get a pass/fail test in a tight space today.
Going back as far as at least 1982 (when I first got my license), this has not been part of the Virginia behind-the-wheel test. In the mid-80s, it was part of the Ohio driving test (you had to park between orange cones, which is harder than parking between cars, but they were generously spaced).
Self-parking cars may soon make this skill obsolete. I self-parked a new Taurus on a test drive a few years ago, and it worked astoundingly well. Once cars have electric steering and a backup camera (as they all will soon), self parking is just software. It will be standard equipment on most cars before you know it.
It was not part of the drive test in CA when I took my test in 1997.
Now for the CDL A test parallel parking the trailer is part of the yard skills portion of the exam.
Interesting Diagram about halfway down:
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2011/07/cdl-blog-part-3-passed-the-tests.html
The real weakness in our system is that we will allow someone with a C license operate a 30′ U-Haul or RV while towing 15′ of trailer.
Wasn’t on my test in 1998. I would guess the rise of Malls and huge parking lots made parallel parking less important from the 1980’s on. All I had to do was prove I could back up in a straight line for about 50 feet. Weird.
In WA you must back around a corner and not get too far from the curb when doing so. Presumably to simulate backing out of a driveway.
Another grumpy old man, here. I learned to parallel-park in a 1975 Mercury Marquis. When my sister learned a couple of years later, I gave her practice in a 1963 Cadillac. My kids all learned in a Crown Victoria.
The skill has come in handy. A year or so ago, I was picking a son up at college, and parking was very tight. There was a curb space ahead, but someone got there first. However, after about 3 tries, that car gave up and resumed the hunt. Because my Chrysler minivan was way smaller than a 75 Marquis, I had no problem. 🙂
Yup. I took the test in 1974; with a 1973 Gran Torino. Ya know…coke-bottle flanks and gun-slit rear window. Somehow I made it through…the practicing I did in the driveway with garbage cans and rakes set through the handles, paid off.
These days I can just whip into a parallel parking spot. Doesn’t hurt, though, that I drive a car the size of a golf cart. But kids today…I don’t get it. They don’t like to study; and nobody makes them in the schools…but when it came to DRIVING, in my generation we were all OVER that!
Of course the girls that were lazy and uninterested, found a way to slid by on the Driver’s Ed parallel-parking tests. Short, short skirt…and the dirty old man who was the in-car instructor would be too concerned with wardrobe malfunction and various bindings in his own attire, to critique her parking.
These days, I doubt – from what I’ve seen – they even test for it.
I took mine in a 1976 Elite.
I also had to parallel park for my driver’s test – did it in my dad’s ’79 Datsun 510 – manual steering and brakes.
I taught my son how to parallel park last year in his hand-me down 99 Camry – right in front of the house – put out some plastic garbage pails – the appropriate distance apart – and had him practice it until he got it right – after awhile he wouldn’t roll the window done for my advice!
I read a old blog of yours. It sounded to me you are a well educated man. I need some help on locating some car parts. I have a Peugeot 404 from 1962. I wondered if you could give me any leads to finding these parts. Thanks Corey
That was a long time ago. Back then, I had a Peugeot dealer in town 🙂 I can only suggest google; I know they’re out there.
Recently found some 404s at Horopito wreckers, long way to come though.
I managed it for my drivers test as well. Manual trans, no power steering.
I think parallel parking has been replaced by text messaging proficiency standards. Or maybe I’m just feeling too cynical today.
Thanks, Paul. I have been surching eBay and google for about two years on and off. I’ll work on my parking job. Lol Have a good day.
It wasn’t part of the Texas drivers test in 2005 when I got my license, that’s only because there was no driving test. In Texas if you get a high enough overal score on your in-car training you only have to take the theory test, but I did have to do parallel parking at least once during training. That said, in the eight years I’ve been driving I’ve never once actually needed to parallel park, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I never do. That, combined with the fact that my car is longer than most PERPENDICULAR parking spaces, means that it isn’t a skill I plan to master any time soon.
Driving inside a government ship repair facility definitely increased my parallel parking skills, as well as generally making my way through tight quarters in any of a variety of different assigned vehicles, from 12-passenger vans to Daihatsu kei pickups. One is likely to have to thread one’s way among and around pallet loads of practically anything, air compressors, other vehicles, portal cranes, railroad cars, temporary shelters, guard shacks, bollards, gangplanks, and other such impediments. One also learns when to say the hell with it, park at the head of the pier, and walk, or park on the next pier over and cross the caisson. I will admit to one small mishap; on graveyard shift I was backing around next to a stack of 1-inch steel plates and one of them cut into the corner of Moby Dodge’s cab right behind my head. It took some hammering back at the shop to restore proper operation of the driver’s door, and the next time the truck went in for maintenance they filled the cab corner with probably a whole can of bondo and spot-painted it.
Well, I took my driver’s test in 2000 and they were still requiring that you know how to parallel park.
I failed that part of my driving test but over 10 years of living in a city setting has taught me everything that I need to know about parallel parking. It’s like second nature now!
Makes me laugh watching clowns try to parrallel park I was taught to do that for my 1973 test now days people are so stupid theyre teaching cars to park themselves.
What BS! At least in urban areas, given the ever increasing lack of parking drivers of all ages are likely much better at parallel parking on average.
If this photo was taken back in the 70s when all you old fogies were in your prime, there would probably be only a single other car on the road… maybe a horse drawn carriage or two. THAT makes parking easier.
Whenever I see a car parked like this, I stand both windshield wipers perpendicular to the windshield. My gf thinks it’s stupid, but I feel like it successfully annoys and sends a message to the driver without my doing something really stupid–like kicking a dent into the driver’s door.
We had no garage or driveway where I grew up on the west end of St. Louis. If you didn’t learn parallel parking, you couldn’t park. Spaces were at a premium, too, and you often had to be an expert to work your car into the few tiny openings that sometimes were available. Of course, it seems modern car design doesn’t make much of an allowance for parallel parking, which often requires (in tighter spaces), the light tap on the bumpers of the cars in front of and behind you as you try to squeeze in. Now, you’d probably crack a headlight or bumper on your or another’s vehicle.
How does one get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice. Line up with front cars’ side view mirror and turn your 1.5 times towards the curb. When looking out your side view watch to see the rear bumper move on top of the curb and cut the wheel. You’re in.
Chicago testing (in the late ’60s) did parallel parking (which I flunked), but the suburban testing stations never bothered. The town I learned to drive in had little need for parallel, so it took a while to get used to it. I still hate it with the big Silverado…
In my UK test we didn’t have to parallel park, but we did have to reverse around a corner, at a reasonable distance from the kerb, which is pretty difficult as well.
I spent three years driving around East London, and learned to be pretty good at parallel parking – there wasn’t a choice. Here in New Zealand the parking skllls are pretty laughable.
It wasn’t on my test in 2001 but I made damn sure I knew how to do it.
I’m not even 30 yet but I sound like a grumpy old man when I see people who can’t parallel park. It’s not that difficult.
But then again, I’m atypical. I often drive 40-50+ year old vehicles with manual transmission and steering as well.
The worst part about the bad parallel parkers on the streets of SoCal is that they bang into these marginally useful painted bumpers, scratching and denting the covers. Countless cars bear the imprints of front license plate bolts on the rear bumpers – just saw a new Bentley convertible with paper plates on Sunset Bl already adorned with these scars. I try to park at end spaces to avoid this problem but someone recently backed into and nicked the paint on my front bumper and dented the license plate. I’ve seen those ugly protectors that hang over bumpers in NYC. I can understand why people use them but have read reports that they invite malicious vandalism.
I didn’t know such a product existed. I just looked at some images and wow are they ugly. It looks like a diaper strapped to the car.
I do not understand those things at all. The idea is to protect your bumper from ugly scratches, OK… but a few scratches aren’t nearly as ugly as the thing that protects the bumper! And no one puts them in the trunk, even though that’s what you’re supposed to do. I always see people driving on the highways with them flapping around… plus most of them only protect the dead center of the bumper. So you end up with some nasty rubber diaper thing hanging off the back, covering the only shiny part of your bumper and it’s surrounded by dings and scratched up paint. Madness…
Here’s one that has yet to be raped, but as you can see it provides an impressive protective shield. Just as good as buying a spot in a parking garage!
Here’s a stylish heavy duty model designed for minimal aerodynamic drag.
It wasn’t on my drivers test in Florida in 1991. I ended up having to teach myself. When I worked for Mr. Sesi, I had to figure out how to park Town Cars and Grand Marquis’ in lots of tight spaces. I got to be rather good at it too 🙂
Where I live in East Tawas, the main street has parallel parking, so it’s a good thing to know how to do. Seeing how my Escape and Alero aren’t all that long though, it’s a breeze!
I can parallel park like a boss! After 25 tears of being a landscaper (I now sell Fords), I learned to parallel park my rig, pick-up truck AND a 18 foot tandem trailer. And yes, properly. Not only that I can back that thing out of a driveway, down the street, and around the corner. Not bragging, but I can if necessary. I always say, “If you can’t back it, don’t pull it.”
On another note, I tried Ford’s “Active Park Assist”; didn’t think I’d like it, but it is THE BOMB! It picked out, and then parked a 16 foot Fusion into a 20 foot spot, all I did was watch the back-up camera (not necessary), listen to the back-up sensors (necessary), and brake. A little off the curb, but so were the other cars. Amazing.
Around my way it’s best described as “If you can walk to the curb, you’re parked!”