Parking

I always think it's daft to reverse into a parking space at a supermarket. It's so much easier to take the trolley to the boot to unload.
I can only parallel park if no one else is in the car. If DH is in the car I can't cope at all. He sort of growls. Tension in his throat and he doesn't mean to but..

As I said before Aveline that is supposing that your car has a big enough boot, my car has next to no boot space, so my shopping goes on the back seat. There are only two of us, so there isn't very much and it is not very heavy.

I have been reversing into supermarket spaces for 45 years. Either the trolley can be wheeled to the boot between two vehicles or I leave the trolley by the bonnet and carry the bags all of thirteen feet to the boot of my current car. It really isn't a problem.

It’s far easier to see to drive forward out of a space especially when the vehicles either side are high-sided as many are now nowadays. Parked between a couple of builders' vans, you’d have to reverse out blindly. You are dependent on other drivers seeing and stopping for you.

I have never seen a car park accident when someone has been driving forward out of a space but have witnessed many when someone has reversed out into another vehicle.

Furthermore, if the space between rows of cars isn't large it can take a driver several manouevres to reverse out and get the car into a forward position. That doesn’t happen if you reverse in and drive out. Much more efficient and safe especially at night as explained upthread.

An elderly woman died in our local supermarket car park a few years ago. She was struck by a car which reversed out just as she was passing it and the poor woman fell under it.

The driver’s excuse was that they didn’t see her due to large jeeps being parked either side of their car.

Grannynannywanny that's awful, so sad.

Years ago I had just taken a child out of my trolley and was strapping them in their car seat.
Some dizzy woman, who I knew, reversed out of a space opposite, hit my trolley and sent it spinning across the car park.
I shouted angrily at her, she stuck her head out of the window and gaily called "Sorry!" back at me.
A few seconds earlier and the child would have still been in the trolley. So frightening.

SueDonim is right to not want to lose the skill of reverse parking. Every car I have had has many more features than the previous one and as a result I would hate to have to cope without the front and back cameras, park assist, the current car will even read my email for me and it's four years old so goodness knows what the next one will be able to do.

I do it, but don’t think I’m good at it. In fact I think my rear camera is not set right as I follow it - but when I get out of the car it is still a bit squiffy in the parking space ? ? ?

In a car park, you usually have to reverse in or out. The choice is up to you and people get knocked over, injured, or, in this case, killed by reversing cars, but I do think many people walking to and from their cars, with or without full trolleys also act in a way that threatens their own safety.

I am sure I am not the only one who has positioned themselves to reverse, only to have someone walking slowly down the car park suddenly speed up and nip behind me just as I start moving backwards, because they are afraid that if they do not they might have to wait as much as 30 seconds, while I complete the operation.

There seems, generally, a tendency to always blame the driver, never the pedestrian or cyclist, despite those same pedestrians and cyclists being just as capable of taking risks, making stupid decisions and taking dangerous actions.

Drive in for easy access to boot.

Reversing out never a problem, slowly and carefully does the job.

I do reverse park at most other times though. Just depends.

I’ve always reverse parked (as instructed by my Dad many years ago!) unless I’m doing a big supermarket shop for easy boot access, and I love the reversing camera & sensors my 2 year old car has when I’m reversing out from between high vehicles as they alert me to pedestrians or cars about to pass. However, as others have said I do try to just use mirrors most of the time so that I don’t lose the skill!!! Until he got a car with cameras my husband used to jump out of the drivers seat in a car park and ask me to take over as he can’t park for toffee!!! He’s always strongly supported female drivers if colleagues ever said anything derogatory and openly tells them I’m a better driver and parker than him (gets him lots of gold stars off me, nearly enough to cancel the lead ones lol)

I always reverse into a parking space. But yes, accessing the boot is difficult, so I just put my shopping bags in the back seats. I live on my own, quite close to Tescos, so I very rarely have more than 3 carrier bags.

Some years ago a man known to me accidentally knocked down and killed his wife while reversing to adjust his position in the parking space.

I have a problem with parking! I aways drive into a parking space and when I am sitting in the car I'm SURE the car is straight but when I get out I inevitably find the car is at an angle. There then follows the pantomime of me getting back into the car and trying to straighten up. When I do back out of a parking space I go very very slowly while carefully looking all round, as others have said, trying to see past vans and large cars can be difficult.