I'm terrible at it. I failed that part of my driving exam. Thank heavens I rarely need to parallel park.

When my older kid was taking driver’s ed and asked me about parallel parking, I said my method was to avoid it altogether! But through driving with him, I can finally parallel park, on either side of the street! (one way streets might call for parking on the left) Oh Oh, and I now have my mirrors set properly, no blind spots.

I failed parallel parking on my first driver's license test when I was 16 because I failed to center the car between the cones. I haven't needed to PP for many, many years that I can recall.

There was a Filipino girl that I worked with that was terrible at PPing. We would watch her try thru the office windows and laugh. It would take her several tries every day before she got it right. Eventually she broke down and paid to park in a parking garage.

Like others I will go way out of my way to avoid it. What is also dreaded is getting out when the other cars front and back have left me mere millimeters to do so. grrrr.

I can only PP when there are two open spots so I can drive into it. PP wasn’t on my driving test. My husband has always been able to put the largest vehicles into the smallest spaces with ease. I think it must be a talent some are born with.

I don't do it enough to be very good at it - thankfully, I don't have to do it very much 😄

I was taught how in Driver Ed, and I have a backup camera on my car now, but still...

In my youth I lived in the city so PP was second nature. Today I live in the country with off street parking so it's rare for me to PP unless I need to go.........back into the city ;-)

“My husband has always been able to put the largest vehicles into the smallest spaces with ease. I think it must be a talent some are born with.”

KW, my husband is like that! And backing up a trailer into a tight spot! In fact, I think he shows off a bit. 😄

When we covered three-point turns in class, I just didn’t get it. Then I saw a car chase on Mannix (remember Mannix?), Joe Mannix had to turn to go the other way, boom! Three-point turn! Thanks, Joe!

“In my youth I lived in the city so PP was second nature. Today I live in the country with off street parking so it's rare for me to PP unless I need to go.........back into the city ;-)”

Same here. The car that I drove the most before I was married and still living in a city was a 1966 Olds Delta. It was a boat, but I never had trouble parking it.

Never learned, too late now. I'm far happier parking on a side street or public lot in our small town and walking a block or two. No need to tie up traffic with my attempts.

bpath, a lot of people here do a version of three-point turns in the winter whether they like it or not. It’s a very fast move..

In my younger days in DC where parking was tough, my friend lived on a one way street. I learned to parallel park driver's side to the curb. It was an odd kind of challenge.

I'm okay at it - not challenged, I don't avoid one when that's what's available but I'm not ready to enter a competition. It's easiest to do just by rote, and something that's perhaps likely to be difficult if someone overthinks that task.

Many cars have a feature to parallel park the car on its own, with no driver intervention. As a self-guided, robotic task. A car I sold a just a few years ago had it. I mostly used it as something to play with, something to show people in the car. Usually to their amazement. On one occasion, it was of great value. We went to a favorite restaurant in a quasi-industrial district. Parking is always tight. I dropped off the riders and went looking for a spot. I found one, on a dark, unlit street. It seemed large enough but barely so. I decided to engage the self-parking feature. It expertly wiggled the car into the space better than I ever could have done.

The same car had another feature that was useful more often - when the car was put into Reverse, the right side mirror was angled down, to offer a view of the curb, the rear wheel, and distance from the curb. I do that manually whenever I parallel park. It makes the task much easier.

Roxsolid, here, too!

I don’t get teaching parallel parking with cones. I mean, you can’t really feel when you hit them!

Elmer, those features are cool. I suppose it would take some tensing up the first time one engages them! Then one would become accustomed.

Yes. When I got the car, I used it a number of times when it didn't matter, and when there was plenty of space, to develop some confidence in using it.

The car could parallel park on either side, you directed which by selecting the appropriate turn signal side. It did left side parking equally well as right (I tested it by driving up to a spot while I was facing the wrong way, on the wrong side of a residential street)

I sat through two light changes waiting on the person in front of me to parallel park between two cars. They finally gave up and drove on when the light turned green for the third time. And no, no one honked or yelled at that driver. But if it had gone on much longer……………..

"Same here. The car that I drove the most before I was married and still living in a city was a 1966 Olds Delta. It was a boat, but I never had trouble parking it. "

My first two vehicles in the city were a 63' Ford Galaxy 500 and a Dodge Voyager Van, I had to learn how to do it right and tight.

I never had a problem parallel parking when I was young but I haven't had to in years. As far as backing a trailer into a tight spot, about 15 years ago after my mom passed DD and I were driving home to NE from FL with a 26 foot cab-over moving van towing Mom's car. behind. Every time we anticipated congested highways, having to park or gassing up I'd have her drive, since she handles trailers and all like a pro.

@roxsolid I forgot to tell you this about your post - Portland, OR city motto is this ”Keep Portland Weird”. There is signage around town about it. I found this on a quick lookup ”“Keep Portland Weird” is the unofficial slogan of Portland, Oregon, created to promote and support local, independent small businesses”

I'm proud to brag that I'm an excellent parallel parker 😆 I took driver's ed and practiced in my dad's huge Chrysler Newport. He made sure I learned how to parallel park. We practiced over and over.

Today I drive a mid size SUV and can parallel park it into any spot.

Thanks Dad 😁

i do ok with it but prefer not to have to PP.

i was, however, a force to be reckoned with whenever i had to put my truck and horse trailer (bumper pull as opposed to gooseneck) into spots without a lot of wiggle room. i was the envy of many cowboys at trail rides although they would never have admitted it. i can remember a few times when i was backing into a prime parking spot (a nicely shaded area close to the convenient water source) when a few men stood around watchhing and i'm sure, waiting for me to fail. always got my truck/3-horse trailer positioned perfectly on the first try.

I used to live in the city where I could park on a dime!

Now years later, living in the suburbs, I never do it. And, I can easily avoid by heading to the parking lots rather than street parking.

ETA I had a car that had parallel parked as a feature and I was afraid to use it.

If I couldn’t parallel park I’d be in trouble shopping in my small town where parallel parking is pretty much the only alternative unless I want to walk a long way. When we first moved there nearly 40 years ago, I watched one of the locals parallel park in one flawless move. I thought, ”I want to be that guy.” And now I am ☺️

I don't mind parallel parking. It's all about the angles.

For my first driving test (note the use of the word first) I only did two things right Parallel parking and starting on a hill. I was driving a standard and the two hardest things to do in a standard were easy for me.

i find driving then and now extremely boring.

I’ll also say I’m ok at it but not ready for competition. With reverse cameras it’s easier these days, 360° cameras make it easier yet again. My wife’s car has a self-parking feature but I have yet to use it in a ”real” situation. First, I have to remember how to turn it on, and I don’t always get there when I need it. Second, it’s slow. If I wanted to annoy impatient NY drivers by being slow, I’d let my wife drive.

Rarely am I in a place that requires it, but I don't avoid it if it's available. Many cars these days have multiple cameras, which we all didn't have when we got our licenses, so it's a lot easier now even though I get less practice at it.

For anyone with sailing experience with boats with a tiller, if you turn and look backwards over your right shoulder and put your left hand on the bottom of the steering wheel, the movement of the wheel in the same direct as you'd move a tiller, changes the direction of the stern (rear of car) in the same way.

What gets the front of the car close to the curb is a final movement of the car in reverse with the top of the wheel hard over to the left.

We are in a small town and I parallel park all the time either side of the street as we have a lot of One Way streets. I have always been good at it and it plus the 3 point turn were required in 1966 when I took my DL test in New Orleans. If you couldn’t street park in the Quarter where we lived when I married in 1971 you didn’t park.

My Mom could PP her 1970s Ford LTD anywhere, any time - she was a magician.

Our neighbor taught every kid in our neighborhood (12 that I can think of off the top of my head) to PP. Not one of her pupils failed PP on their driver's test!

I, too, became better at parallel parking when I lived in San Francisco. There was no other parking available in the neighborhoods. And I had to get good at getting out of tight spaces since parking spaces were scarce and small. I remember having my VW bug nearly touching the car in front of me and behind me and it took many back and forths but I did get it out. Of course I was MUCH younger then and still had patience to spare.

Im pretty bad at parallel parking. Ive even watched youtube videos to try to improve my skills.

Philadelphia is having a Parallel Patking Championship in October. Its nearly impossible to live in the city and not parallel park. Good thing I live in the suburbs now.

ded, I was just reading about that.

There will be three categories:

One shot

Tight squeeze

Under duress

LOL, I’d love to hear the smack talk and heckling during the third category. It’s audience participation.

If you can't parallel park don't try driving over here. On street parking is a fundamental necessity. Many homes were built before the car was invented and don't have garages or drive ways. We don't. We have to parallel park every time we come back home. Plus we live on a steep hill. Many businesses don't have parking. The best you can hope for is a carpark somewhere not too far away. The really skilled people are the truck and bus drivers who do it all the time.

The last time I drove in the UK, I was driving through a village with narrow streets and cars parked on both sides. A lorry approached from the opposite direction and in my effort to make room on my side, I misjudged the distance on the left separating me from the parked cars (that being an unfamiliar bearing from my lifetime of lefthand-drive cars) and the left side mirror of my moving rental car hit the right side mirror of a parked car.

I pulled over, of course. Fortunately bystanders knew and found the owner of the car I damaged and we exchanged information. Insurance covered the costs charged to me as the person at fault.

That was the last time I drove in the UK and it will remain the last time I drove in the UK. I'll comfortably drive in other places with the same road orientation so long as no narrow roads are involved.

Fun “fact”: 🤓

China and the United Kingdom hold the top spots for extreme parallel parking, home to the drivers who set the official world records for the tightest spaces.

The street where DD lived in Melbourne was an old narrow, one way, mid-1800s street with a lot of terrace houses, few of which had driveways or garages. Parking spaces were at a premium, all parallel parked of course. Garbage truck days were a worry as there was barely enough space for the truck to go down the middle and many cars (DD's included) were sideswiped at least once.