If You Can’t Parallel Park…

How-to Parallel ParkThen don’t. I mean sure, you should probably learn to parallel park before they give you a license, but that would be in a perfect world. Ours is far from it, I realize; however, the sheer number of people on Call St. whose cars were hanging all out in the road was staggering. It was like a 1:1 ratio with those parked correctly.

If you can’t handle it, you should learn or park elsewhere.

Here are some parallel parking tips courtesy of TeenDriving.com:

The S method

  1. Signal and pull up approx. 3 feet away from the car you want to park behind, aligning your rear tires with the other car’s rear bumper.
  2. Put car into REVERSE, and turn wheels ALL THE WAY to the RIGHT.
  3. Slowly back-up until you are at a 45 degree angle. STOP.
  4. Turn the wheels ALL THE WAY to the LEFT. (Walter from a driver’s school in Canada from yd.com recommends that you roll very slowly while you turn the wheels to avoid putting damaging stress on the tire sidewalls and steering components.)
  5. Slowly back-up until you are parallel with the curb.

If done correctly you should be less then 12 inches from the curb.
Practice will improve your judgment.