The art of parallel parking

Posted at 11:14 AM on December 9, 2011 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The InterTubes are alive with chatter today over this video in New York (posted yesterday) showing someone who actually knows how to parallel park. Hey, they call them "bumpers" for a reason, people.

I've seen better:

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Comments (9)

I hate parallel parking and try to avoid it as necessary.

But then I am strange and hate going head first into a space and will park further away if I can "pull through".

Posted by Paul (@princejvstin) | December 9, 2011 11:10 AM

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I try and tell people all the time "they are called bumpers for a reason," but I often just get dirty looks.

And of course, if you use bumpers in your driving test, you fail.

Posted by Kassie | December 9, 2011 11:13 AM

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I went to a high school hemmed in by streets and houses with a mere 100 parking spaces in the only parking lot. Needless to say that teachers took most of those so either you learned to parallel park fast or enjoy a ten block walk from your car to school if you drove. I almost enjoy parallel parking. I'm just that twisted.

Posted by Brian | December 9, 2011 11:14 AM

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I love this post - gives me a chance to brag on my best parallel parking ever, which happened this summer and was documented in this photo: http://twitpic.com/58oa5k

(of course after seeing Bob's post, I notice how much room I have in my photo!)

Posted by Tom Weber, MPR | December 9, 2011 11:17 AM

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It is sad that so many new cars have the "park themselves" feature.

Tosh.0 did a nice little video clip which looks at women and parallel parking (note, it is suppose to be funny and not sexist).
The odd thing is that the video is actually safe for work.

Posted by BenCh | December 9, 2011 11:22 AM

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I've always found parallel parking to be easy. There's a simple process and if you learn it you always get the same good results.

Posted by David | December 9, 2011 11:28 AM

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I'm good at parallel parking!

I believe the technique shown in the video is also known as "the Braille method".

Posted by Heather | December 9, 2011 12:07 PM

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I'm fine at parallel parking when I've got all the time in the world and I'm all by myself. If there's someone on the sidewalk, or a car waiting to get around me, fugedaboutit.

Posted by Tyler | December 9, 2011 1:28 PM

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Both of those videos are a scream!

Kassie, I say the same thing! I'm pretty good at parallel parking, though. I passed my driver license test on the first try. There is a certain sort of geometric solution to parallel parking that can become, with practice, one of those things your hands can almost do "unencumbered by the thought process."

One of my driving pet peeves is drivers not using their turn signals when they're preparing to p. park.

BenCh: that video you linked to isn't funny. And it IS sexist. I don't know if women have more trouble with p. parking or not, but that video proves nothing. It's a gigantic van, a small space that anyone would have trouble with, and hand-picked "test subjects.".

Posted by Jamie | December 9, 2011 5:53 PM

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