Yesterday, I went to pick up my daughter from kindergarten. Her school is on a main road and has no parking lot, so parallel parking is unavoidable. It can be hard to find a spot when lots of parents are parked there, so I try to arrive as late as possible\u2014but even then, I still have to parallel park.<\/p>\n
Parallel parking a large car like the Panamera<\/strong> is no easy feat.<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s a paid parking lot nearby, but it costs 200 yen for 30 minutes. Parking there every day would add up to about 5,000 yen a month\u2014or 60,000 yen a year. I\u2019m not keen on spending that much just to pick up my daughter, so parallel parking it is.<\/p>\n Yesterday, there was just one spot available. I checked behind me, saw no cars coming, and backed in at a fairly sharp angle. I got it in on the first try.<\/p>\n Phew. What a relief\u2026 \u03b5-(\u00b4\u2200\uff40*)<\/p>\n As I got out and walked up the steps to the entrance, the teachers smiled, applauded, and said:<\/p>\n \u201cThat was some parallel parking! It\u2019s amazing how you squeezed such a big car in so neatly!\u201d<\/p>\n Wait\u2026 seriously? (\uffe3\u30fc\uffe3)\uff01\uff1f<\/p>\n I said, \u201cOh, it was nothing,\u201d but I couldn\u2019t hide how pleased I was\u2014I was grinning like an idiot. That got me thinking about parallel parking, so I looked up some \u201cparallel parking tips\u201d online. A lot of the articles I found, though, didn\u2019t quite sit right with me.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the kind of advice I found in one article:<\/p>\n Check that there\u2019s enough room to parallel park (about 1.5 times the length of your car). Stop alongside the car in front, slightly ahead of it and about one meter away. When your rear bumper is level with the other car\u2019s, stop, then turn the steering wheel all the way to the left\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u2026Hold on\u2014you\u2019re going to get rear-ended by the car behind you.<\/span><\/p>\n That might work for a parallel-parking test at driving school. On a quiet country road, you could take your time and think, \u201cOkay, first I\u2019ll check whether there\u2019s 1.5 times my car\u2019s length\u2026 then\u2026\u201d (Though if there\u2019s that much room, you can probably park anywhere, so there\u2019s no need to overthink it.)<\/span><\/p>\n When you need to parallel park,<\/strong> the road is often busy and the available space is tight.<\/strong> If you suddenly stop and take your time on a road like that, you\u2019ll either get rear-ended or have someone lean on their horn like there\u2019s no tomorrow. Then you\u2019ll panic, steer the wrong way, and scrape your car.<\/p>\n More than anything, what bothered me about those articles was how many of them simply taught people to memorize a set of steps.<\/p>\n Advice like \u201cturn the wheel all the way left when you can see the driver\u2019s seat beside you\u201d or \u201ccheck the edge in your side mirror, then do this\u201d is like cramming facts for an exam: you might remember the steps, but you won\u2019t know what to do when the situation changes. The right approach depends on the size of your car and how much space you have.<\/p>\n The basics matter,<\/strong> but memorizing steps without understanding them doesn\u2019t help\u2014<\/strong> and could even be dangerous.<\/strong><\/p>\n So, here\u2019s how I think about parallel parking.<\/p>\n This is the most important point. It\u2019s wise to avoid tricky parking situations where you might get hit or scrape your car whenever you can.<\/p>\n Trying to park in one smooth move can make you panic when there\u2019s a car behind you. It\u2019s fine to leave plenty of space on your left at first: pull over a little, put on your hazard lights, and stop. The driver behind you might be thinking, \u201cMove over already!\u201d<\/strong>\u2014so just say, \u201cSorry about that.\u201d (Even though they can\u2019t hear you.)<\/span> The first thing is to get the car stopped in a temporary position.<\/p>\n If you let the cars behind you go by for a while, there may be a break in traffic when the lights change. Check your rearview mirror to make sure there\u2019s no one coming for 200 meters, then pull forward and reposition at an angle. With no cars behind you, you\u2019ll have more time to maneuver, so you can follow the basic parallel-parking instructions you find online.<\/p>\n That\u2019s just my personal take, of course\u2026<\/p>\n But more than anything, it\u2019s best to avoid parallel parking whenever you can.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Word About Parallel Parking Yesterday, I went to pick up my daughter from kindergarten. Her school is on a main road and has no parking lot, so parallel parking is unavoidable. It can be hard to find a spot when lots of parents are parked there, so I try to arrive as late as possible\u2014but even then, I still have to parallel park. Parallel parking a large car like the Panamera is no easy...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/?p=103","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nocar-nolife","en-US"],"yoast_head":"The Usual Parallel Parking Instructions<\/h3>\n
Three Tips for Parallel Parking<\/h3>\n
1\u3000Avoid Parallel Parking Whenever Possible<\/h4>\n
2\u3000Pull In and Stop Temporarily<\/h4>\n
3\u3000Wait Until the Road Behind You Is Clear, Then Reposition<\/h4>\n