Help me re-learn how to park
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Please don't laugh.... and I don't mean parallel park. I need to re-learn how to get in and out of a regular, pull in parking spot, like those in a parking garage.
This is a 100% serious issue.
I think I have mentioned in the past that, since returning to the US in 2008, I rarely drive. First we didn't own a car for about 7 years, and then we've been a one-car family since 2015. After having driven in Japan for 12 years (on the other side of the road, on the other side of the car, in much smaller car, with lower speed limits), at some point I realized I wasn't comfortable driving in the US. So for the last nine years, Mr Sk drives me to work, then he has the car all day, and then he picks me up after I finish work.
Well, that works fine most of the time but he's going to be going to Japan soon and I'll be on my own for a few weeks. So I'll have to get myself to and from work, to and from the grocery store and all of that.
In preparation, I've been driving a lot more recently. So I felt pretty good about it and I thought I was fine. But we've been going together, I drive to work and then he takes off with the car. So one thing I forgot to practice: parking.
Well, this morning I drove to the parking garage where I'll park at work, and I realized I don't think I can reliably get in and out of parking spots right now.
This morning, the parking lot was empty, so I practiced getting in and out of different spaces, including turning in to the left and right.... I am not at all confident that I can get into a spot without hitting a car on one side. I don't feel like I know where the front of the car is (on either side) and I don't have a sense of when to start turning the steering wheel to pull in (jeez it's painful to write that...)
Actually, it just occurred to me that I should have tried backing in. That's how I parked almost all the time in Japan (that's pretty much the standard in Japan, back in, and pull out when parking). Our car doesn't have any side monitors (like the kind on side mirrors) but it does have a back-up camera. Maybe I'll have better luck at that. Of course, most people don't back in, so I would have to make sure to do it in a way that someone behind me wouldn't take the spot while I was trying to get into it....
So, any suggestions? I don't think Mr SK knows what to do with me. And his trip is coming up soon....
Ugh. This is a mess.
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One of the things I dislike about parking is with my Nissan Murano, the height and shape of the front end makes it difficult to see exactly where I am within a space and am I straight. Luckily I have a camera that shows you birds-eye view so i can adjust but it's still a pain. When it comes to backing out, we have camera, mirrors and old-fashioned visual. I never know quite which view to trust.
My advice to you would be to park in farther out spots where there are very few other cars around until you get the hang of it. A bit more walking but a lot less stress.
âI refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answerâ
â Douglas Adams -
@Mik said in Help me re-learn how to park:
My advice to you would be to park in farther out spots where there are very few other cars around until you get the hang of it.
This is what I hope to do, but it's kind of hard to gauge and the word is that the spots fill up very fast... And I'm not the best at getting up and out of the house early.
I'll see what I can do tomorrow (i.e. how early I can get up!)
I'm really kicking myself because I actually started driving during the summer, once we knew Mr SK was going to travel this fall. So I've been driving regularly since July-August. But I just realized I hadn't parked, not even once! Oops!
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Spend an hour or so practicing at a not-crowded store lot today. Then you'll have better muscle memory and visual judgement. Does your current vehicle have that birds eye view camera? It's actually down around the bottom of the car but fills in to make that illusion. You can see where the car is within the lines.
âI refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answerâ
â Douglas Adams -
@Mik said in Help me re-learn how to park:
Does your current vehicle have that birds eye view camera?
It only has the back up camera, nothing for the front of the car, and that's where I feel like I don't have a sense of how to do it.
So this morning when I was practicing, I was pulling in from the front but in our car, there's no tech-support for that (no front camera, no beeping etc).
The back-up camera shows on the monitor and superimposes lines (which turn from white to orange to red if you get too close to something).
So I think I'll do much better with that. I just don't know if I can back into a spot if there is another car behind me, because if I pull past the spot, maybe they'll assume I'm not parking and they can pull in....
Anyway, I have not quite two weeks to get this under control, so yes, practicing is what I will be doing!
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@Mik said in Help me re-learn how to park:
One of the things I dislike about parking is with my Nissan Murano, the height and shape of the front end makes it difficult to see exactly where I am within a space and am I straight
Same here for our Subaru Outback. No camera in the front so no help there. It has a backup camera but I still mostly turn around and look behind me.
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@ShiroKuro
I think I'd head out to someplace like a church parking lot later this afternoon when it's empty and try pulling in and out of parking spaces. You can get out of the car to check on how well you did. Would be great if you had a few highway/safety cones to set out there so you could practice parking around and between "cars".Otherwise....how about Uber?
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie AumĂ´nier
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@wtg said in Help me re-learn how to park:
a few highway/safety cones to set out there
I actually might do this in our driveway -- we have a wide driveway with a cut out (that's not the right word) but you can drive into the driveway and then turn 90 degrees to the left as if that was a pull in parking spot. I think we have some orange cones... I just need to figure out how far apart to set them.
@wtg said in Help me re-learn how to park:
how about Uber?
Mr SK is going to be gone too long for that (believe me, I thought of it!) Actually, while he's gone, I will probably use Uber a few times (I plan to go to a community concert which is hard to get to and I don't want to drive). But it would get too expensive very quickly to uber to and from work every day!
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Ok, whew, there's hope! I drove into campus today, left my house at 8:15am. At that time, my targeted parking lot was less than half full. So I can easily park in a space where there are no cars on either side, and take my time getting myself into the space. And I can back in, so that when it's time to go home, I can pull out and won't have to worry.
I can definitely do 8:15am.
Whew. I am very, very relieved!
And by the time Mr SK gets back from Japan, I should be all "re-learned."
Whew.
Did I say whew?
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That sounds good. You just need to practice, your brain will figure out where the front corners of your car are based on visual cues once youâve done it enough. The sooner and wider you can swing the car out (to the left if you are pulling into a parking spot on the right) the straighter you will be entering the parking space, with less chance of hitting a car on either side. Practice turning into your driveway with some cones set up like a parking space. It will come back to you!
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@Jodi said in Help me re-learn how to park:
sooner and wider you can swing the car out (to the left if you are pulling into a parking spot on the right) the straighter you will be entering the parking space, with less chance of hitting a car on either side.
That's very helpful, thank you!
This morning I arrived at the parking garage at around 8:10am, and again it was mostly empty, so I practiced a little more.
I will be able to make this work. Thankfully. Otherwise I'd have to quit my job!
j/k -
Birds' eye cameras are fantastic. We had one in our previous car and I didn't realize how reliant I had become until we no longer had it. I've had similar issues when trying to park in Vancouver, where the wide roads, big parking lots and wide spaces you find in the US aren't very common. What helped me was to practice, and use every guidance tool available. So yes, try backing in using your backup cameras. Do they have side and back warning lines? You'll get used to what they actually mean. In my case, the red line is a good 8-12 inches away from the wall/column or whatever, so I've learned how far I can really stretch it to get my car in, and most importantly, not to freak out if my red line approaches a wall. Practice makes perfect.
Also, take your time and just glare at people who are annoyed with you. If you're totally freaked out, pull back out, drive around and find another, less crowded parking spot.
The other advantage to back-in parking is that it's much, much easier to pull out and go home! I back in almost everywhere now for that reason.
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@Nina said in Help me re-learn how to park:
your backup cameras. Do they have side and back warning lines?
Yes! It's very easy to use!
Yep, I prefer to back in and then pull out. That is the norm in Japan, so between the fact that that's how I parked every day for 12 years, and the fact that my current car has the backup camera, I'm much more comfortable with that.
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Get that finger ready to respond to critical onlookers
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When I was in a high school driverâs education class, the instructor put traffic cones stored in the carâs trunk onto a parking lot and we, three students per car, would take turns practicing parking. I donât know where you can get traffic cones.
I have a narrow garage so I have to be super careful when entering and exiting my garage. Iâd like for my next car to have a feature called âfour wheel steeringâ (4WS). Some of the 1990s Mitsubishi GT3000 models had this feature. There may be other car makes and models that have 4WS but I havenât been keeping track. It makes a car more maneuverable to steer and especially in tight spaces.
The outside rear view mirror is a feature that Iâd like to see go away for good. Because outside mirrors protrude from a car, theyâre vulnerable to damage. Cameras can take the place of the outside mirrors. I think Japan allows cars to have this feature. Itâs probably just a matter of time when U.S. cars will have 4WS. Most cars already have a back up camera with the monitor screen in the dash.
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@Qaanaaq-Qaalaaq said in Help me re-learn how to park:
I donât know where you can get traffic cones.
We have some! I think we bought them at Lowes.
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Thought I would give an update.
Parking is going well so far. IOW I haven't hit anyone or anything yet.
First of all, I found out that we are required to pull in when parking in campus spaces, so that the parking attendants can easily scan the cars' license plates. Fortunately, I found this out before my first day parking on campus, bc apparently they give tickets if you park back-in.
re the actual act of parking.. what I'm noticing is that, as I'm parking, I feel very nervous and don't trust where I am in the space, but when I open the door or get out to check, there is more than enough room on either side of the car and I don't need to reposition.
But so far I have only parked in spaces where there are no cars on either side. So even though I suspect I'm maneuvering the car in a way that means I'm not going to hit a neighboring car, I'm still too scared to risk it!
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Then thereâs a device called a âcurb feelerâ.
A curb feeler is an aftermarket device that some people used to attach to their carâs passenger side fender. Theyâre passe now. I havenât seen one in decades. Itâs a long thin flexible metal coil that jutted out from the lower fender. If you got too close to a curb or anything else, it would make a metallic sound to let you know you were too close.
Passenger side outside mirrors cause some distortion because theyâre convex shaped glass.
Outside mirrors stick out too far. Whenever I back up, I turn my head and look out the back window in addition to using the interior and exterior mirrors. This was an expensive lesson for me. Once when I was backing out of the garage and turning the carâs wheels, my outside mirror hit the steel track that the overhead garage door uses and cracked the mirror. I had to buy a whole new mirror assembly.
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@Qaanaaq-Qaalaaq said in Help me re-learn how to park:
a âcurb feelerâ.
I have a vague recollection of those!
But yeah, passe. I would be embarrassed!
I'll try to just recapture the skill, and sense of the car, that I used to have when driving was something I did every day.
