Ask Lemmy

When you are approaching a parking spot you're already looking everywhere and can find obstacles as you back in. If you drive into a parking spot backing out may have issues because you may not have seen obstacles that would be in the way. We are not always as observant approaching our vehicle as we are when we have already been driving it. Plus, it's a whole lot easier to get back out of the parking spot if you can just drive away.

I drive a large pickup truck for work. With the backup camera, it is WAY WAY WAY easier to back into a tight spot than to pull head in. I pretty much always back the truck in.

For years, I worked in a large building that required all employees and visitors to back in for a few safety reasons, with approximately 600 spaces and an almost full lot most weekdays. It was stated in our safety training that it was easier to see other people and vehicles when exiting facing forward and faster evacuation in times of extreme emergency. It had the benefit that it did seem to quicken flow of traffic when everyone left around the same time at the end of the day.

If a parking spot is straight, I tend to back in for those reasons, but if it is an angled spot, it typically denotes a singular directional flow, and it makes more sense to pull in and back out.

I guess it depends on the kind of places where you are parking. Where I am, we usually have big open parking lots with lots of space. I rarely ever back into a space, because backing in is more difficult than backing out. However if you are in more of a congested city or something, and the spots are narrow and you have a lot of cars moving around, then the situation flips and it can be more difficult to back out of the space than to back in.

I don't have a big, stupid, oversized, vehicle with blind spots. I can park normally.

1. People/oncoming cars/kids are more likely to be in the road than in the spot I’m parking
2. I have better visibility when I’m facing forward than when I’m in reverse

Therefore I would rather reverse into the spot where people/cars/kids are least likely to be and drive forward into the place people/cars/kids are most likely to be. I personally almost always back in to be safer towards pedestrians and avoid getting hit by other cars.

I have way more maneuverability backing into a space.

Think of it in terms of circles (well, arcs, really) . If you front park in a space perpendicular to the road, your front wheels make a large circle and your back wheels a smaller one. The parking space needs to be big enough to accommodate the larger circle. If you back into the same space, the larger circle happens on the road.

Besides that it is safer, I don't hit my front splitter on the curb.

I feel like I can pull out of the parking space quicker and easier if the nose of my car is facing towards the street.

Also, and this sounds silly so please don't judge too hard lol...

I got a new car recently. My old car had front parking sensors that would beep in increasing frequency the closer you are to an item. My new car does not have front parking sensors. My new car has both a backup cam and rear parking sensors. So it is sometimes easier to back into a space.

However, I mostly only back in at my home parking space and in this one parking garage I go to with very narrow spaces. I get nervous in public when someone is waiting for me to back in so I don't do it super often in public.

Unless I am going to be putting stuff into the trunk, backing in is better, it's more dangerous to back the car out of the space than into it.

Backing in is the correct way to parallel park too.

Sometimes backing in seems easier than backing out

I'm blind in one eye so find it hard to judge distances and gaps. As a result I find it easier to back in, especially if I am doing it between two parked vehicles, because I can judge it more easily using my wing mirrors.

My boss apparently backs his truck into his parking space every morning out of a combination of overabundance of a caution and the reduced turning radius while in reverse. Well, he did he did up until I pointed out to him that mostly what this accomplishes for him is making it irritating to load anything into his truck... Which is, not to put too fine a point on it, what we do all day around here.

Our parking lot is very quiet, private only us and the other tenants in our building, has no random pedestrians, and cross-traffic isn't an issue.

Some people think, but for the wrong reasons.

Backing into a parking bay where the amount of traffic in the bay is close to zero and visibility is great allows you to drive out into the street facing forward where you can see what traffic is coming.

If you drive forward into a bay then you have to back out of it into the street where you cannot see anything except what's directly behind you and you have little to no visibility sideways, unless the bays next to you are empty, so essentially you're backing out with your fingers crossed, hoping that nothing will hit you.

Moreover, the traffic rules, at least where I live, specify that a reversing vehicle has to give way to everyone.

As a bonus, when you're loading things, you're not standing in the street with your back to traffic.

In other words, learn how to back into a bay.

Safer when pulling out of parking stall. Less blind spots.

Although I don’t back in. I drive through from one spot to the next in front of me. So I can drive out.