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Friday, May 13, 2011

Backing In

Wow! It sure was aggravating to have Blogspot on the blink all of yesterday! I'm glad it seems to be working again so here goes!

There's been a driving trait in Hawaii that we've been noticing. People tend to back into parking spaces. Sometimes it takes several tries for somebody to do it, but we all wait patiently while they maneuver their vehicles into tight spots.

The thing is, we almost never did it in Illinois. Granted, I never paid much attention to parking in Illinois. I just assumed everybody went straight in.

I wonder why this tactic came to be here. Art is an excellent driver, but he doesn't even try to back into a space. I can't even parallel park so I won't even consider it. Seems to me it really requires a lot of practice and talent.

What do you all do in your neck of the woods?

22 comments:

  1. Glad you guys are up and running again -- I'm not yet and this is really, really annoying!!

    I find lots of people here in the northwest back into parking places, too. Of course, doesn't affect me since I don't have a car anymore, but it wasn't one of my better talents! Hope you have a great weekend, Kay, with no more blog problems!!!

    Sylvia

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  2. I think they do it so they can drive straight out. Maybe they think it's easy to squiggle backward into a space than it is to back out into traffic (even the small amount of traffic in a parking lot). Just a guess.
    I'm not happy with driving backward since I had my eye surgeries.
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  3. Wasn't this the most annoying thing? I love all my comments and it was sad for me to see them all disappear from my Tulips post (even some of Alex's disappeared), especially when people took the effort to write such nice things. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this doesn't happen again.

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  4. I never have problems with Wordpress. Why does Blogger have so much trouble? It's very annoying for those of us who want to read and leave comments.

    Re: parking. David backs into our driveway, whereas I drive forward. I prefer to back out into the road rather than back into the garage (where it's a tighter squeeze).

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  5. Alot of people here in Charlotte, NC back into their parking spaces too! What is with that!!

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  6. My husband always backs into spaces so he doesn't worry about crowded parking lots when leaving. However it's a problem when arriving if it's busy!

    Boy am I glad to have blogger back! As soon as I get home from the gym, a post is first on my list!

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  7. I lost some of my blogger's comments too and two posts but I was able to repost them as they were saved in my list of posts. Weird-shows that you can get too dependent on the Internet for activities. I wonder if it was retaliation for Osbama's death. I've noticed that too about backing in. I prefer to take my chances backing out...

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  8. I think 55 alive driving classes teach this technique as a way to avoid running over people and things behind you as you back out of parking spaces. I don't do this, but I always look around me before I get into the car and decide how I am going to back out, which I do very very slowly.
    I also avoid left turns without signals whenever possible. I have a tendency sometimes not to see things right in front of my face and have to be careful.

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  9. I really missed being able to post and comment yesterday. I think they are trying to get everyone's posts back but that must be a monumental task.

    If I can park with the car facing out I will, only because I'm always afraid of pedestrians who suddenly pop out of nowhere as I am backing out. What I try to do is find a space where I can just drive through. I would never try to back into a space unless absolutely necessary. For one thing I'm not that good at it. If I do back in then I make sure there is no one around when I do it because it takes me at least two or three tries to get straight.

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  10. I think the driving schools are teaching their students to back in if I remember correctly from my daughter's driving lessons a few years ago.

    I can't back in to save my life! And I never parallel park. I suppose it's all practice (and interest).

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  11. I'm still missing yesterday's post but hopefully it will return. They are supposed to be working on it.
    I don't back,nor have I seen anyone do it but notice several do what I do. I chose a spot that has an open space directly ahead of me facing the next lane and pull through to that one. It does make it easy getting out. That is a senior citizen move.

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  12. As long as you're not holding up a line of cars, I think it's better to reverse into the stall, so you can drive straight out more safely, especially at a busy mall. What irritates me is people who park right next to you when the entire parking lot's empty.

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  13. I think there's a mixture here in the UK, no one way seems to be prevalent. I prefer to back into parking spaces as I find it difficult looking around in all directions if I'm backing out. Backing in you only need to keep an eye on the cars either side of you, and they're stationary. It's just easier to keep my eyes open for moving things in all directions if I come out forwards.

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  14. I'm with gigi, Wordpress is so much better than Blogger. I wish all the the Blogger people I read would change. I hate having to type all those silly non-words to just get my comment to post. And sometimes I have to do it multiple times because I mistyped a letter or something. Even when I am very careful, I often get shut out. So many comments don't ever make it. We'll see about this one!

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  15. I am a very good "parker." Now wait, don't be getting the wrong idea. Back in the day, that would not have been a nice thing to say. I guess I should say that I am good at parking a car. My father taught me how to park a car by lining up lawn chairs in the large lot where our house was situated. I had to practice and practice until I didn't knock over a chair. I guess his idea was a good one.

    I prefer to drive into a parking place straight on, but when you get right down to it, parking is like life. Sooner or later, you have to use reverse.

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  16. Yup, Blogger down until later this morning. And too, Open Diary, where I come from first, is still down tho I have a back door address for them. That's really odd that all the notes vanished like that. Poof.

    Parking. I'm getting better. I back my full size truck into my tiny bit of the garage. It's so much easier to pull out forward...there's no way I could back out here. In shopping centers, I note many folks pull through to the front space which looks like they backed in.

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  17. Many here back into spaces. When I do this, it's usually because I feel a lot safer when vacating the space. In backing out of a space, one has more of a blind spot.

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  18. I think it is because if you are involved in a 'crash', and you were the one backing up...it is deemed your fault. In the driving classes that I do for AARP, people are encouraged to avoid backing up by planning ahead to avoid it. And there is the 'blind spot' element of backing up where you can't see what might be directly behind you. So if you park so that you can go forward to leave, you have a better chance to have optimum view.

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  19. We backed into our driveway in Hawaii because of the tall hedges. We couldn't see the road when backing out of the driveway until we were in the middle of it.

    Here we back into our garage because the neighborhood is full of small children who play in the streets. We want to see them and that's easier to do facing forward.

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  20. Parking your vehicle anywhere in India ...well ,one of the toughest job to do .lolz.

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  21. If the turning or steering wheels are in the front, then the vehicle is more maneuverable going backwards. Same with shopping carts, dollies, and forklifts. You'll notice forklifts always steer with the back wheels and the front wheels are fixed. This is because forklifts must maneuver into and out of very tight spaces.

    so any car will be much more maneuverable going backwards than forwards. If the stalls are slanted into the direction of aisleway travel you can just park going straight in. However, if the stalls are perpendicular to the aisles, you have to execute a 90 degree turn, which is difficult in the limited aisle space. So backing in is much easier. I suspect due to the generally smaller stalls (tighter) here in hawaii due to the cost of land, this is exacerbated even more.

    aloha,
    walt

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  22. Oh they do everything here depending on the city. Here in Melbourne they do a lot of parallel parking which is a nightmare because I CANNOT DO THIS. I am so bad that I am seriously thinking about getting some driver training just to park. I have not done a parallel park since I got my licence at 17 and thats a century ago. People do back into carparks here too because I think it is sometimes easier to get out that way - but there is no way I would do that either. I have to drive nose into a car park or not at all. Which is the reason why I am catching public transport a lot.....

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