Back In Parking (sports car, engine, towing, drivers)

[Therblig]

Originally Posted by pikabike

BTW, some people back in because they have a thing about being able to blast out of work right on the dot. I had a coworker who would actually go outside again a little while after arriving at work (never early), repark her car back-in to have it ready to bolt when she left for home (never late). She was a cheater in many ways. People did notice her odd parking habit and knew exactly why she did it. She would also look outside to see if someone parked a few feet closer to the door had left for lunch. Then she would go out just to back her car into that closer spot.

Again an example of a little learning and misplaced logic (IMVHO) but it lets me toss out a story —

After the war, my dad worked in an aircraft maintenance shop. There was one guy who was a massive clock-watcher, as above. At about 3:30, he would carefully position his metal lunch box on a particular corner of the metal worktables, so that at the first note of the 4:00 whistle he would head for the door at a dead run, snatching up the box on the way.

Until one day he found himself thirty feet along with only the handle in his hand... the box had been soldered to the worktable top.

The result was that he had to add a tenth of a second to his exit time, carefully lifting the box before continuing his mad dash out the door each day.

Until a few weeks later, when he got to the security checkpoint, where he had been in the habit of passing at a dead run, the box open for inspection... only to find it had been soldered shut. (He may have just tossed it at the guard, saying, "Keep it!")

I never really have understood this mentality, either. Not just strictly sticking to the clock, but making a fetish of it.

Fetish seems to be the right word, here, overall.

[1200RT]

Originally Posted by DenverBrian

When you back in to park, you're backing into a known space, with zero chance of a car coming across.

When you back out to exit, you have an unknown risk of one or more cars driving through the space you're trying to back into.

This really isn't rocket science.

This - its safer. Its proven.

To add, backing up is a more cognitively challenging exercise. After driving for some time, your senses are more tuned into operating the vehicle. Complete the more challenging task when you're better prepared. Why would you want to complete a more challenging task as your first activity behind the wheel, when you're senses are not yet warmed up to 'driving'. This is why backing in is taught in professional settings.

[pikabike]

Yup, fetish fits. Someone told me all the union workers at his workplace always backed into parking spots, chosen for proximity to the building exit. Exactly on the dot of quitting time, they literally dashed out and then RACED their vehicles going out of the lot.

Not much going on upstairs if this game was the focus of their whole day, if you get my drift.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by 1200RT

This - its safer. Its proven.

To add, backing up is a more cognitively challenging exercise. After driving for some time, your senses are more tuned into operating the vehicle. Complete the more challenging task when you're better prepared. Why would you want to complete a more challenging task as your first activity behind the wheel, when you're senses are not yet warmed up to 'driving'. This is why backing in is taught in professional settings.

When there is a choice, I do prefer to back in, because hours later I might be a bit tired from whatever I was doing while the truck was parked.

At home, I park nose first in the garage. The only downside to this is if there were an emergency, then I have to back out under stress. But it has an advantage, too: it makes loading awkward items into the bed much easier to have that end just inside the garage door.

[Therblig]

Originally Posted by 1200RT

This - its safer. Its proven.

The superiority of a thing is never a reason for it being adopted. I could hit the message-size limit listing examples just off the top of my head.

I guess the one thing I remainingly find odd is that I've never seen it, other than a rarity, until the last couple of years — even here. Not sure why a fairly old "better way" would take so long to suddenly catch on.

To add, backing up is a more cognitively challenging exercise. After driving for some time, your senses are more tuned into operating the vehicle. Complete the more challenging task when you're better prepared. Why would you want to complete a more challenging task as your first activity behind the wheel, when you're senses are not yet warmed up to 'driving'.

My touchstone for this is renting a trailer, something I only do from time to time. First time home, backing it into the driveway is worthy of a Laurel and Hardy skit.

Two days later, backing it into a slot at the rental agency is done without coming to a full stop. Then the skill erodes again for a year or two.

[Mike from back east]

This topic is not only fit for the Denver forum, it is fit for the automotive forum and in due time I'll probably move it there with a re-direct as there's bound to be a much larger audience for this topic.

[Therblig]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

This topic is not only fit for the Denver forum, it is fit for the automotive forum and in due time I'll probably move it there with a re-direct as there's bound to be a much larger audience for this topic.

Was originally meant to be a local inquiry.

['M']

Good question! Because I always know that pulling out of the parking spot will be a breeze. When I back in, the front of my car is closer to the street and I can see better to pull out.

[ben young]

Some have it drilled into them from work when using a company vehicle ,policy is back in ,or pull through.

[Westerner92]

A former SO of mine is in UPS operations and safety management. He always backs into parking spots, and it's standard protocol for quite a few corporations. The logic goes that it is much safer from the standpoint that there are much fewer unknowns backing into an enclosed space vs backing out into a road or parking lot row.

Also, it's not really much of a thing anymore, but it used to be code that if you backed into a spot in an empty parking lot for a park that was known for cruising, it meant you were "looking".