4 Parallel Parking Tips & Tricks | Driving Lessons

So what we want to try to do here today is give you some tips and tricks to help you with your parallel parking. And basically what parallel parking means is that you're going to pull over alongside of a fixed object, a fixed car, and then you're going to have to back your car into the space. Now the thing that makes this difficult for beginners is because parking is all about angles. You have to know the right angle of which to cut your wheels to the right, and then which to cut your wheels to the left. If you haven't done this enough, you just don't know how to do it. People that have parked for years and years, they don't need tips and tricks, because they just know. They've done it enough times to know when to cut to the right and when to cut to the left. For the beginner, the beginner needs help with this. And therefore we've developed a method to help you. What we can do is tell you to pull over and stop alongside of the other car, and then you're going to back up straight for a while, until where you're sitting would be even to the middle portion of the trunk of the other car. At that point, you're going to turn right to develop your first angle. And when you turn right, your car is going to end up in a position like this. And what you're going to look for at that position, you're going to line up the right portion of the front windshield with the left rear corner of the car, with you, where you're sitting, and that's going to give you the angle that you need to start cutting the wheel to the left. At that point you just cut the wheel all the way back to the left and your car should roll right into the space. What's crucial on this is you're looking. You want to make sure that you're looking back the whole time you're doing this because you want to make sure that nothing is walking behind the car, which could be a hazardous situation. The other tip I have to do this properly is to make sure you do it nice and slow. If you do happen to overshoot the angle and tap the curb, it isn't a big deal, as long as you can put the car in drive and straighten yourself out. And then once you've completed it, you need to exit the space safely. So you want to put your blinker to the left. You want to make sure you look over your left shoulder. Make sure it's safe, and then when it is, you're going to pull out back into traffic and continue along. So those are some tips and tricks to help you with your parallel parking, and I hope it works out well for you.