The Glade 4.0

I don't get it. I see this all the time.

Some person decides to park their car into a stall not by pulling forward into it, but by backing up into it. Now, I could completely understand this logic if 1. They can successfully back into the stall with minimal effort and time or 2. They are doing this at their home, to save (two extra seconds worth of) time in the morning on their way to work.

But no. I see it often at stores. Grocery shopping. Anywhere there are cars and parking stalls for them. And 9 times out of 10, it takes them easily a good 30 seconds to 1 minute to back up their vehicle (9 times out of 10 it is a truck or SUV, and 9 times out of 10 it is a male driver).

What is the point?! Are you deluding yourself into thinking you are saving time? Because I have news for you. While you may have shaved two whole, whopping seconds off of your departure, you are still 60 seconds closer to your eventual death that you could have saved just by parking like everyone else.

Maybe they are afraid that today will be the day that during the 10 minutes they are shopping at Best Buy, the zombie apocalypse will hit and it will just so happen it will also be the exact time their reverse gear stops working. That's the only thing I can come up with.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

In some cases its easier to get in and out of a space by backing in, because you can see where the corners of the vehicle are with the mirrors. When looking over your right front, it's hard to tell how far you are from things. that's a reason for a lot of cockeyed parking jobs; people being unsure how far they are from adjacent vehicles.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Because people are stupid and don't know how big their cars are.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I'd accept that as a minimally acceptable excuse, but I've seen this scenario many times with sedans, or vehicles even smaller. Even ones without rear cameras.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Even without rear cameras, it holds. Some people just have a hard time judging distance.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Also, tight spots.

Due to one set of turning and one set of stationary wheels, you're more maneuverable backing in than pulling in front first. I almost exclusively park by backing in for tight spaces.

It's the same reason you back into a parallel parking spot rather than pull into it.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Just saw this thread and on my way to lunch I witnessed someone not understanding their SUV turn radius, resulting in her driving half the car over our grass leaving the parking lot.

Moral of this thread: bad drivers gonna be bad.

At my old job, we had a driving safety course we had to take. One of the things they suggested was backing into a parking spot or pulling through. This is because it's easy to get into an accident while backing out of a parking spot. Similarly, there's a company nearby (Schlumberger) where they mandate that all employees back into the parking spots at work, for the same reason. You can see mention of this policy here.

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I prefer backing in. I'm just usually too lazy to bother...

I usually regret this when it's time to leave.

The front fascia is lower on most of my cars than the rear diffuser and it would crunch on impact with a concrete parking bumper.

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In time, this too shall pass.

This. That way you can see the direction you are going better on your way out, when you are most likely to encounter other moving objects be they vehicle or pedestrian. Valet's are trained to back into spaces for this reason, and also you save time on the retrieval, when the customer is waiting.


but also this since I've been out of the profession for a few years now.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

In the Army, backing in is known as "combat parking" and when in the field, is always done when you pull into a parking area at a TOC or something, so you can pull out rapidly.

Law enforcement vehicles should do the same thing, but a lot don't.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I can see the utility of backing in if everybody did it. But when 2/3s of the vehicles in the lot are SUVs and vans, any improved visibility is pretty well moot.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Look at it this way: if they back into their space, they're backing into an empty parking space next to (probably) uninhabited vehicles. If they back out of their space, they're backing into an active parking lot with moving vehicles, pedestrians, inattentive children, etc.

They're clearly shitty at backing vehicles, so which would you rather have them do?

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

I will park somewhat further away from my destination if there is a "drive-through" spot available, where I can drive forward through two spots and be ready to drive out on the other side.

I never back into a parking spot. Because **** that effort.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

You're still going to be able to see around those sooner coming out headfirst.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

This is why I back into a spot whenever possible. Because it's much easier to see what's coming at me as I'm pulling out to leave.

That's some nice train of thought. Good point.

This made me laugh, because my ex works for Schlumberger and I remember him pushing this. To be honest, it is safer to exit going forward. You are going to have to back up either coming or going. Why not back up when there are fewer hazards?

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Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!