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Comment by wccrawford | Hacker News Reader

"When you're reversing out of the car park, you've got two way traffic, people pushing trolleys, kids running around."

And you've got all that while backing into the spot, plus you have to not hit 2 more close obstables that are behind you, in your blind spots.

I'm not buying this for a minute.

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Valets park cars all day long. And they back in.

When you are parking, you have much more visibility of oncoming traffic, and the other drivers see you more clearly too. When backing out, you have less visibility and are less visible.

It’s a terrible article. But backing in is absolutely the safer option.

Obviously in terms of pedestrian safety, you're more likely to hit a pedestrian in the open/drive area of the lot rather than in a spot. So backing in is indeed safer for pedestrians. But for just about every other reason, it is impractical.

Also, valets are more practiced and often are parking in areas where only they are placing and moving cars. So it's a more uniform, controlled environment. The cars are probably lined up better, making it easier to get in, and the other cars are probably not moving at the time since only the valets move them occasionally.

> But for just about every other reason, it is impractical.

Personally find backing in much easier that the opposite. You have far more control and manoeuvrability at low speeds when your turning wheels are at the “back” of a vehicle rather than the front. It takes very little time to get used to using mirrors etc when reversing, and then becomes trivial to put cars into all manner of awkward spots that simply impossible to get into when driving forwards.

I remember few times when I just got into driving I was so proud of myself when backing in into a tight spot... then figuring out it was for nothing coz I can't get out of the car

I agree about what you say, but it completely ignores the point you replied to.

You can't practically reverse into a spot when someone drives too closely behind you and prevents you from reversing, or when someone noses into that spot that you appear to have just driven past.

Correct: so since you're more likely to hit a pedestrian in the open area, you want more visibility when entering it on your intended departure from the lot, which is what you get if you had backed in.

Valets back in because their customers don't care how long it takes them to park the car. They've already gone inside and are about their business. They only care how long it takes the valet to retrieve the car. Their tips depend on retrieving cars quickly. They also have captive lots no one else is driving in, and a system for navigating them that the other valets understand, removing ALL the other complicating factors that cause people to think it might be safer to head in.

You can't extrapolate from their situation to everyone's just because they "park cars all day."

Sure, but it’s also obvious to pedestrians that you’re reversing as the car will be in the middle of the traffic lane. Plus your mirrors are aligned to make it very easy to observe pedestrians moving across the space, when reversing out you have literally no way to observe pedestrian traffic that might be about to walk across the back of your vehicle.

When you reverse out of a parking spot, it’s frequently not obvious to pedestrians that the vehicle is moving because the cars on either side obscure not only your view, but also the view of pedestrians.

I would also point out, hitting another car isn’t great, but it’s much better than hitting a person.

Then you also have to try to roll your cart between all the cars to get to the back of your car to unload your stuff. And you must hope that the driver opposite you (behind) didn't back up so close that you now can't open your back door.

Ah, if only we all drove air-cooled Volkswagens...

I guess in some places it's all electric cars with "frunks", so it's no longer a worry. I was actually thinking of Texas, where big SUVs are the norm.

> And you've got all that while backing into the spot,

Not really

> plus you have to not hit 2 more close obstables that are behind you, in your blind spots.

If you didn't hit it in your mirrors, you won't hit it going in unless you did something horribly wrong.

And frankly if you have problems backing in into a spot you shouldn't have driving license as you clearly don't have enough control of the vehicle you're driving to be a safe driver.

You are missing something important. When backing in you went by the intended spot first and looked to verify it was clear. Thus you have no chance of hitting someone in it. You cannot see as well backing, and when backing out there is time for something unseen to get in the way.

I don't buy it either. There is also 2 way traffic when you reverse park and reversing can be challenging either way. There is a high chance of disrupting both lanes of traffic, when parking and leaving, regardless of the way you park. My take away is that it is "safer" to bump a parked car, while trying to park, than possibly of reversing and bumping a person or their wild, uncontrolled, children, running in an active parking lot.

But when you're backing in, you risk hitting the vehicles that you're parking between. This means you risk damaging your own car, so you will behave more carefully.

I'm a huge proponent for backing into parking spaces, and I do that 100% of the time myself because I simply find it easier than driving front-first into a parking space.

But that same argument could be made both ways, no matter if you back into a parking space or not, it's still the same cars.

When backing in the cars around are not moving. When backing out there is sometimes another car in the space across from you backing out at the same time, and this moving car is harder to see.

So the danger you worry about us worse not better backing out.

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