Learn how to parallel park in 20 mins

Parallel Parking Made Easy ;-)


Following on from the last blog about setting up door mirrors, here a couple of tips that will trash the myths about how hard it is to parallel park your car. Get a small piece of white sticky paper and attach it to the top of the left rear wheel arch & fold it out so it is visible from the front - see picture.





So when doing a parallel park, one of the keys is reognising when you are reasonably close to the kerb. The trick is that the piece of paper can be seen in the left door mirror hovering over it - time to straighten the wheel.
So starting at the beginning: Choose a car on the left that faces forward to practice around, follow all the usual safely procedures and pull up parallel to the target car about 1 meter away and half a meter beyond it. Reverse back (taking precautions) until your left door mirror is opposite the target car's mirror and after looking all around, turn the wheel one full turn to the left and hold it there. Taking all around observations and glancing into the left door mirror watch for the label appearing to hover above the kerb, the turn the wheel briskly to the right until it will not turn any more (full lock). Again looking all around and glancing into the mirror you will see the car come towards being parallel to the kerb and now is the time to straighten the wheel. With a little practice in your own car, you can perfect this in 20 minutes.

Let me know which other maneuvers you find difficult and I will try to help.

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Setting up door mirrors

Front door handle is here ^


OK, so instructors will generally tell you to set up your door mirrors virtically to allow you to see a 50/50 split i.e. bottom half road, top half trees, houses, sky or whatever - this is fine. But try doing that when your Dad has parked in on your driveway, against a wall, on a slope etc etc. Check out the 2 picture and notice the position of the division between the door windows and the door; also the rear door handles (if a 5 door car). Obviously these objects are in a fixed position in your particular car, so you car set up your mirrors in any situation.
Always set up the left mirror slightly biased downwards, as in left image above and notice that we can just about see the front door handle(shown with little arrow). Consistent with having an excellent long view behind, this slight bias is great for accuracy when doing the manoeuvres. This is because you will be able to see the left kerb, left white line in a bay park etc; and if you can see what you are trying to get close to it really helps.

Hope this helps you learners, try it for yourself and see.

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Speed humps as a learning aid

New drivers often find it difficult to stay a reasonable distance from the left kerb and instructors will correctly help them by giving them a reference point. Something like "we are about a meter from the kerb now, so tell me where the kerb appears to come into the car?" "Oh its in the middle of the wiper blade", "OK so try to keep it there; this is your normal driving position".

Personally I find that traffic calming speed humps like the one here really help. I get the learner to try to straddle the hump and mostly they are too far to the left, consequently their side of the car bumps up. So next time aim a little to the right; oh! this time neither side of the car raises up. Well done, let's practice that a few more time - excellent you've got that perfectly.
What happens is that the drivers spatial awareness is improved by the physical feedback of the car raising left side or right and they keep looking ahead rather than ahead then to the side.

Hope this post helps you a little, if you want to find out more about our driving lesson summer special offers and teaching methods click a link.

Hazard Perception Test

The Driving Standards Agency's car driving test is conducted in 2 parts, theory and practical. The theory is split into questions and answers about road procedures, the law, traffic markings and signs etc and the hazard perception test.
The Q & A section is multiple choice with generally one correct answer to each question. This tests a new drivers knowledge about the subject and mostly can be learned from the Highway Code, other DSA publications, various commercial DVDs and web based resources. Encourage your friends and family to quiz your knowledge; both you and they may be surprised about each others competence.
The hazard perception test is often misunderstood, but put simply it tries to assess a new drivers ability to read the road, traffic and other road users intentions in a rapidly changing environment. A good driver will be planning ahead, observing and anticipating what other vehicles and pedestrians are doing, picking up on as many clues as possible to see a developing hazard as early as possible. So what is a developing hazard? Well let's start with a hazard! This can be as mundane as a parked car on the side of the road; this hazard develops if for instance another vehicle approaches and changes direction to overtake; it may further develop if the driver of the first car opens his door and the second vehicle has to swerve into the path of on coming traffic. So if you see a hazard, as simple as a junction or a zebra crossing; think "what could happen & how will it affect my intentions" as well as other users in the vicinity.

You need to pass both parts, but if you know your stuff it is not so hard. Time allowed for Q & A 57 minutes and you need to score at least 43 out of 50.

There are 14 video clips in the HPT and you need to score 44 out of 75. Check out this video that surprised me and hammers the perception point home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4

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