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Comment by antonvs | Hacker News Reader

I always wonder why people do this. What’s the reasoning?

I asked a former truck driver once and his answer was that it's easier to see what's in front of you than behind you. I wondered why people in our neighborhood backed into their driveways at first, then I realized this was indeed true. If I turn into the street and back into my driveway, somebody probably hasn't jumped behind my car. If I get in my car and back out of my driveway, somebody walking/biking along may not notice my car backing out of the driveway, and my old potato backup camera isn't always the best at illuminating people behind my car at night in bad weather.

When you have a tight spot, getting into it in reverse is the only way to do it safely — your front wheels can turn but your rear wheels can’t.

However I always park with the front to the exit, since I might find myself in a situation where I have to drive away very quickly.

It might be anything from a dumpster truck about to block the street to some kind of family emergency.

I have the 20 seconds now but I can't be sure I will have them in the morning.

I wonder this too. It’s much harder to back into a cramped parking space than backing out into an open space. So they do it very slowly. Watching people do this is frustrating.

They would rather back into a parking spot surrounded by stationary obstacles than back into a parking lot or road which may contain pedestrians or other drivers.

I'm not saying _I_ back into spaces. I generally drive into spots and reverse out of them. However, I admit that what I do is a tradeoff where I take on risk in order to have a mechanically easier time entering and exiting the space.

This makes no sense. In either case the car traverses the same space once forwards and once backwards.

That's true, but what GP is saying is that when you're pulling out, you are traversing the part of the space overwhelmingly more likely to contain passing pedestrians and vehicles with full visibility.

And then some parking spots require parallel parking which is best done via backing up anyway.

I don't think you understood what my comment says. The whole point is that it covers your "but".

> It’s much harder to back into a cramped parking space than backing out into an open space.

With cramped parking spaces, your real options are (a) backing into it or (b) driving forward into it. When you need to have a 90 degree turn, option (a) gives you more control over the eventual position of your car, and is frequently the only option.

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