How To Perform Perfect Parking With These Wonderful Tips

by IndianAuto Team | 16/10/2018
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To many folks, parking a car is more difficult than driving a car. If you don’t want to risk scratching or making a dent on your precious four-wheelers, some tips below can help you.

How to park a car with absolute perfection is an issue that many drivers have, and no matter how well you are able to snake around the traffic in India and avoid peculiar moving objects on the street with ease, you really cannot claim you are an excellent driver until you have mastered the art of parking.

Generally speaking, there are three types of parking you may encounter, which are angle parking, perpendicular parking, and parallel parking. Angle parking is the type of parking that you have to perform when you see parking lines that are diagonal to the curbs and it is usually seen on the sides of the roads or in parking lots. Perpendicular parking is the type of parking that you have to do when parking lines form a right angle with the curbs and this kind is most seen in parking lots or garages. Parallel parking is often done along the curb between two cars and there can be parking lines to signal parallel parking area or no lines at all.

Though the much dreaded parallel parking is notoriously harder to perform than the other two and it often becomes a joke on many means of media like movies or cartoons because of its difficulty, but it is not impossible to master. Because the same techniques can be used in all parking types, we will give you some general tips on how to take your overall parking game to the next of the next level. And another thing to keep in mind is that reading an article or numerous philosophical books about perfect parking does not make you a great parker; you have to practice it. Good luck to success and nothing less!

Parking lot with lots of cars

When you have not mastered the parking skills in India, you can never say that you are a good driver

1. Back parking is your best friend

A lot of drivers find it easier to drive straight into a parking spot rather than to back in. If you are a fan of the former method, maybe you should consider back parking, which is also called reverse parking. This method may seem counterintuitive at first but it actually has more advantages than just simply driving head straight into your parking spot. When you do reverse parking, the front of your car is facing the parking lot or the road and the rear is facing the curb. This way, when you back into the parking space, even though you may have to turn your head around from time to time, you reduce the risk of accidentally slamming into other cars that are on the road, and when you get out of the space, the visibility is going to help a lot, too. To reverse parking, position your car so that the rear bumper is diagonal with the spot. Then, you turn your wheel all the way to one side depending on which way you have to go to get into the space. After that, you reverse into the space and slowly evening out your wheel. You also have to find a suitable speed in which you back into the parking spot, and when you first start out practicing parking, soft and slow is the way to go.

reverse parking

Reverse parking helps with entering and exiting the parking space

2. Do not be shy of technology because it can help

We strongly believe that you are fully capable of doing a lot of things on your own without the help of anybody or any technological devices. However, when it comes to parking, we do recommend using any help you can get, especially from technology. Before doing any parking, it is an act of courtesy and a must to alert other drivers that “Hey! I am going to reverse park into this spot! Pedestrians and other vehicles, beware!”. It does not matter if you are a seasoned parker that is qualified to take part in an international parking competition or a new not-so-confident parker, you must use your emergency flashers and blinkers to alert other people on the street or on the parking lot that you have the intention to back into the parking space. In case you are not 100% confident in your parking skill, it is highly recommended that you use a rear view camera as a trustful assistant that helps you check for any objects and obstacles from behind and calculate the appropriate distance you have to keep from the curb or other vehicles at the back of the car. Even when you consider yourself a master of parking, it does not hurt if you use the rear-view camera during parking if your car has one already installed.

rear parking camera for car

Do not be afraid to use technology to help with parking

3. Just take the first spot you see and park

At the beginning, it is much easier if you can find a big space to practice your parking skills and it is even better if there is a sweet sweet humongous space that is not too close to the entrance or to the exit, so you can have some comfortable area for yourself and some “alone time” to apply your just-learned parking techniques. However, when you feel like you have grasped the essence and perfected the techniques, you should just take the first spot you see. The advantage of this is that you may think that parking near the entrance to the mall makes it more time-efficient, but it is not. You will save time driving around just to look for the perfect spot. You will also put into your day a few more minutes because just taking the first space you see likely means that you can avoid the area near the entrance, which people usually intentionally choose to access the building more quickly (but just so you know, their plans backfire), and thereby staying away from the loads of shopping carts that can damage your precious four-wheelers and from being surrounded by traffic upon entering and exiting the area. Being simple and straightforward in some occasions can save you some time, and parking is one of them.

Crowded parking lot

You should just take the first spot you see and park there

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