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Comment by michaelteter | Hacker News Reader

The very first problem you encounter with this approach is that while you are setting up to back into a spot, the car behind you thinks you are passing by; so they nose in and take it.

Or they don't understand you're about to stop and backup, so they pull behind you too close, preventing you from reversing. Even if they realize and want to backup to give you space, there may be someone behind them already.

This is something that only works if everyone is taught and if everyone agrees to behave well. This might be more feasible in regions where parallel parking is common and drivers are accustomed to stopping way back to allow the stopped car in front to reverse.

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Don’t you have indicators on cars in your country?

Here we just put on an indicator to tell the driver behind we intend to reverse into a parking space. If they take it anyway, then they’re just an arsehole, but that’s a universal problem.

How do you tell the difference between a blinker indicating you intend to reverse into a spot and a blinker indicating you are turning forward to go to the next aisle? You can't indicate reverse until you pass the space, and often it's too late if someone is behind you.

You should leave space between you and the car in front of you (always), at least one car-length, so if you follow this, it's easy to see when someone is blinking>stopping>reversing because when they stop, you haven't blocked their space to reverse in anyways.

You must live in a civilized land.

What you describe is how things should work, but in practice it's not that way in many countries. I've driven in many countries, and what you describe has only been common (in my experience) in Netherlands. But even there, it doesn't always work.

Parallel street parking is very common. The car wanting to reverse into a parallel spot will pull past it, put on the hazard lights, and then back in. Usually cars behind, if they are not already following too closely (which does happen a lot), will stop short to give you space to back in. But even in NL, this is less common in a parking lot that is nearly full. People are circling, desperate for a place to park (since the nearest next alternative could be a long way away), and will absent-mindedly or intentionally swoop into a spot that you just passed by.

> You must live in a civilized land.

As noted elsewhere, my driving experience is in Europe, South America, North America (sans US) and Asia, some places more civilized than others. I've never driven in Netherlands though (closest been Belgium), mostly North, South and East Europe.

Turn the indicator on as your passing the space, and slow down so you stop partially blocking the space, put your car into reverse, and wait patiently for the person behind you to extract themselves from your rear end.

And what about the car behind him? He's now up on your tail, wondering wtf is wrong with you and why are you blocking a spot he wants...

The only reliable way to do this is to stop before you pass the spot, have your passenger get out, and then the passenger blocks the road and pretends to give you guidance on how to back in. That makes it obvious, and it also physically prevents them from stealing the spot unless they're comfortable with driving over a human.

> And what about the car behind him? He's now up on your tail, wondering wtf is wrong with you and why are you blocking a spot he wants...

What about them? Just wait till they bugger off. They’ll figure it out eventually.

My driving instructor in the UK taught me two things: 1) when you're in the reverse, you are already at the bottom of the food chain so there is no need to indicate, basically do not move until you're 100% certain it safe to do so, 2) when you follow a car, keep your distance, when the car in front of you stops, stop so far that you can see their rear tires so you have enough space to drive around.

Based on those two rules when the situation described here happens, there's only one solution: I will stand there in reverse and wait for you to back up if you park in my bumper while I'm willing to reverse into a spot because, f** you, keep your distance, thank you very much.

I'm not going to think for you. You think for yourself. Maybe the car in front of you wants to reverse park and that's why they drive so slow...

> The very first problem you encounter with this approach is that while you are setting up to back into a spot, the car behind you thinks you are passing by; so they nose in and take it. Or they don't understand you're about to stop and backup, so they pull behind you too close, preventing you from reversing.

You blink to the side where the spot is. Maybe in the US things are differently, but in most if not all places I've driven (Europe, South America, North America (sans US) and Asia), all drivers seems to understand that blinking to the left when there is parking on the left and no actual turn, means I'm about to back into that spot. They adjust accordingly and leave me space. Haven't really had any issues with this for the ~30 years I've been driving.

I have problems with this all the time in NZ even though I'm indicating for parallel parking spaces so the driver behind must know I have to back in.

I hate the sense of entitlement that these dicks have that they won't give room to allow someone to park, and then worse will try to squeeze past on the outside at the inconvenience of the parking car and oncoming traffic. Your 30 seconds is not worth more than everyone elses.

One trick is to halt in front of the parking spot, wait for the car on the back to stop, set the signal to turn, move slowly to express your intention to park

I just blink the blinkers in direction of parking spot. So far 100% of the drivers get it

N = 1

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