Reply to Do you have to back into every parking space?

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[quote=Anonymous]So just out of curiosity, after shaking my head in amazement at this thread, I've been timing myself parking and pulling out of spots for the past several days.

Starting at the same point, approaching a parking space, and ending when my car is fully inside the space and clear of traffic wanting to get by:
Pulling straight in: 4-7 seconds
Backing in: 5-12 seconds

Leaving a parking space, from poking my car into the lane of traffic until I am fully joined in the traffic lane and driving at parking-lot speed:
Pulling straight out (after having backed in): 2-3 seconds
Backing out (after having pulled in): 6-20 seconds

My takeaways:
- If the person can back in reasonably well, we are talking about a few seconds either way.  You've spent more time complaining about it on DCUM than you spent actually waiting for a car to back in.  If you're that busy and can't wait 5 seconds, then put DCUM down and get on with your life.

- The extra time spent backing in is generally offset by being able to pull straight out vs having to back out.

- The most variability is in backing out of a spot.  This is largely because I drive a small sedan.  If a big car came and parked next to me, I cannot see around it, I can only see directly behind my car.  I have to creep very slowly out of my space to make sure there isn't some a-hole racing down the parking lot, or a little kid about to jump out from behind the car next to me.  I do have a backup camera, but again it only shows directly behind me, not what it coming from the side.

- Further variability in backing out is if the cars next to me parked too close, I can't start angling my car until my front bumper is nearly clear of their back bumper.  If the driving lane is narrow, sometimes this requires 2 passes to get my car aligned with the driving lane.  But I can back into the spot in 1 pass - swoop close to the spot, angle 45 degrees away, and back in.  So for tiny lots, backing in actually does take less time overall.  This is particularly true when I'm driving my husband's SUV instead of my little sedan.

OK, that's my data collection and analysis, in case anyone cares about actual number.[/quote]

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