Ask Lemmy

I have a cargo van. It's impossible to see any traffic coming from the passenger's side when backing up, and there's a big blind spot even on the driver's side. It's a larger vehicle, and it's much easier to maneuver into tight spaces in reverse. (It's why we learn to parallel park in reverse. Try it in forward once, and see.) Also, backing into a parking spot can be accomplished with just a steady gaze at one of the wing mirrors. (Driver's or passenger's side depends on which way you're turning.)

That last point will also be important someday when I'm older and don't have as much flexibility to turn and look backwards. (I was appalled once at a city transportation committee discussion about back-in parking stalls when a city alderperson said that he doesn't look behind his car when backing out, because he can't twist his body. If you can't drive safely, you shouldn't be driving!)

so i can exit my conveyance with style and grace and upon returning i can haul ass out of that place

Because it's safer and easier to reverse into a space and drive straight out than it is to drive in and reverse out, potentially into oncoming traffic or pedestrians.

Unless you specifically need access to your boot (trunk) always reverse in.

Reversing in is actually easier. As your car can turn tigther reversing than going front in.

Guess it's a non issue if you have massive parking spaces, but when space is tight every little bit helps.

Easier to get in Easier to get out Safer (was trained to do it) Why do you pull in forwards?

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

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.

As everyone else has said, mostly convenience. Easier parking, quicker leaving, generally safer. If I'm early to work I'll "drive-through" an empty spot to park with the nose outwards. The rearview mirrors make it very easy to keep track of where your car is going.

Occasionally I've also managed to do some stupidly tight parking jobs where I literally had to climb out of the trunk :)

My backup camera has little lines that show where I am backing up and change as I turn. So that combined with the 360 camera I will know exactly how I will fit in a parking spot. Also makes getting out faster since im usually an early bird to places.

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.

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.

If there's a line of cars and you want to pull out backwards thats a LOT more difficult. If you want to pull out front first it's easier

1. When I'm coming home, I'm usually in less of a rush than when I'm departing. I can reverse into my spot as quickly as backing out when leaving, so it's a tiny trade for time.

2. My truck bed faces away from the street.

3. Makes loading/unloading easier and more private from prying eyes.

Depends on the car and the parking lot, for me. When I drive my mom someplace we use her van, it's easier for her to get in and out that way. This van has a shorter front end, and no backup camera to compensate, so I back in and pull out of spaces so I have better views as I'm moving.

When I drive my sedan with my wife and kids, I pull in to spaces and back out, because the sedan has a much longer front end and a great backup camera/radar alert system that makes backing out of spaces the safer option.

I only park backwards at work and it's because I sleep in my car on my breaks, I get more shade on the front side of my car from the tree I park under if I park backwards. Also it is nice saving the ~10 seconds backing out to leave when I really wanna start getting home even though that time saving in practice is miniscule.

My charging port is in back.

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.

I swear part of it is regional. In the mid-Atlantic region - low volume lot, perpendicular spaces, maybe 1/2 full at max - you can watch people spend minutes faffing around to back into a spot.

imo it doesn't matter if you have the kei car. they are very manueverable. also the introduction of backing cameras make things safer.

things change once you get into the bigger cars / pickups.

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

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.

I worked for a company that provided a car (incidentally a ‘benefit’ I will refuse in any future scenario).

They explicitly told us we had to back in to our parking spots whenever possible. They implied that some data they had showed it reduced accidents.

Because the front tires move when you turn the steering wheel and not the back tyres

Because I have worse visibility backing than going forward. There's a smaller chance that there's a kid suddenly walking into my parking spot than moving behind my car when exiting my parking space

Because, unless you're driving a forklift, the point of a vehicle's rotation is in line with the rear wheels, meaning you can take turns at a much more acute angle when reversing than going forwards. Which makes backing into spaces much easier.

Notice that most of the half-assed parking jobs you see are generally people who have driven forward and left the car parked at a diagonal half out of the space, because getting the vehicle lined up in that situation is more difficult.

i don't drive, but reverse parking is the norm here in hk.

Our driveway is bizarre.

Yeah, it fits 2 cars, but not side-by-side. So one person backs into park, then gets parked in by the other car.

Generally not a big deal because I drive more than my wife does.

The shape of the driveway makes it easier for that car to back in than back out.

I work as a valet at a car dealership, and backing into spots makes it easier for people to just get in the vehicle and drive. The thing I find funny is that the sales team can't park worth a shit. They park crooked, can't back into spots, and they still have a sense of superiority when it comes to anything related to the operation of vehicles.