Parallel parking tips for drivers test

Parallel parking. It’s the one part of a driving test that seems to stress out most new drivers, and some older drivers as well! However, you don’t have to worry about this part of your driver’s test with our steps. We’ve broken it down into four easy steps to make it seem less overwhelming, and we listed them below.

1. Claim Your Spot

Unless your driving instructor marks off a spot for you to parallel park, you want to keep an eye out for a good spot. Once you see one, claim it right away, so other drivers know what you’re going to do. Switch on your turn signal first. Next, you want to drive past your empty space and pull up alongside the vehicle that is in the front of your chosen spot. Your car should now be even with the parked car.

2. Back Up

Take a few moments to check your side mirror and rear-view mirror, and glance over your shoulder one more time. Once you’re completely sure that there is no cars or pedestrians in your way, put your car in reverse. You’re now ready to maneuver into the space. Turn your wheel sharply to the left without moving your car. Once it’s full left, slowly start to let off the brake. Keep going until your car is at a 45-degree angle. You’ll be able to see the car behind you in your car’s rear right window.

3. Turn the Wheel and Stop

When you reach the desired 45-degree angle, you’ll turn your steering wheel toward the right as far as you can. You want to continue backing up slowly, and keep your foot over the brake in case you have to stop quickly. Hit the brake when you get close to the vehicle in the back of the space. You don’t want to accidentally clip their bumper.

4. Straighten Your Car Up

You should now be in the spot with your car very close to the vehicle parked behind your space, and you should have several feet between your car and the car in front of your space. Put your gear in drive and slowly straighten out your tyres to centre yourself in your parking spot. Put your vehicle in park. You should be between six and 18 inches from the curb.

Practising these four steps a few times will make you a professional at parallel parking in no time! Just go slow, pay close attention to your surroundings and practice, practice practice!

Learn how to Reverse Parallel Park with Learn to Drive Driving School. Parallel parking strikes fear into the heart of many learner drivers! Without a doubt it’s the thing that keeps most learner drivers up at night before the driving test.

Basically all you have to do is pull your car up next to another parked car. Then reverse your car back behind the parked car.

However this is easier said than done. Unfortunately each parallel park is unique, which will require you to make small adjustments during the actual parking. Therefore it is important that you have a definite process that you can follow when parking your car.

Before attempting this type of parking, there are a few skills you should acquire first:

Spatial Awareness

This is knowing where your body is in space in relation to other objects such as the concrete gutter or the other car. While reversing your car you will not be able to see the gutter.  Therefore you will need to be spatially aware of where the gutter is in relation to the rear of your car.

Observation Skills

When you are driving forward, you have 180 degree peripheral vision because your eyes are at the front of your head. However when you are reversing a car you can not see properly behind you. It does not matter which way you turn your head, you can not see behind you properly. Because of this, reversing is more dangerous.

Knowing how to reverse you car

The car responds differently when in reverse than in drive. You should understand the difference and discover how the car responds when you turn the steering wheel whilst reversing.

Different cars have larger or smaller turning circles. Therefore each car requires a different amount of space to be able to turn around. Consequently this will affect when you turn your steering wheel and how much you turn the steering wheel when performing your parking.

Reverse Parallel Parking

Prior to learning how to do a reverse parallel park, you need to familiarise yourself with reversing. Because your car will handle differently in reverse, you need to be comfortable with how the car will move.

When you’re doing a reverse parallel park, you have a limited amount of space to work with. In addition your vision is limited.

Basic steps to Reverse Parallel Park

There are four steps to completing the reverse parallel park:

Step 1: Select parked car

Position your vehicle next to the parked car. You will need to select a car that has sufficient room behind it for you to complete the reverse park.

Step 2: Reverse backwards

Reverse your car backwards whilst turning the steering wheel to the left. Stop the car when the left side of your car is at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the gutter. Each car has a different turning circle, which has an impact on when you turn the wheel and how much you turn it.

Therefore the further you go past 45 degrees the more space you will need to complete the parking. Obviously bigger cars with larger turning circles will require more room than smaller cars with small turning circles.

Step 3: Get close enough to the gutter

Depending on the size of your vehicle and its turning circle you may need to stop at about 45 degrees to the gutter. Then straighten your wheels up so that you can reverse in a straight line. Then reverse back until you are close enough to the gutter.

Since the bigger cars need more room to turn you will not get as close to the gutter with a larger car. Whereas a smaller car has a smaller turning circle therefore you can get closer to the gutter with a smaller car.

Step 4: Get close and parallel to the kerb

Turn the steering wheel full lock to the right. Then reverse back until you are close and parallel to the gutter.

Of course this is easier said than done. Because every car handles differently, the amount that you have to turn the steering wheel changes depending on the size and steering geometry of your car. In addition to that, you have the other road users to content with.

Whilst the other vehicles are supposed to stop and allow you as much time and space as you need to complete your parking, the reality is that they don’t.

Reverse Parallel Parking in the NSW Driving Test

As you’ve probably realised by now, reverse parallel parking requires a number of skills to park to the standards expected in the driving test in New South Wales.

In addition to actually completing the reverse park, you are also required to park the car safely and to the standard of the driving test. This means you will have a number of required observation checks that you will need to complete during the park.

In the New South Wales driving test, there are a few things you should to know.

How much time do you have in the test to perform the reverse park?

In the NSW driving test, you’re allowed as much time as you want to park the car. Therefore the examiner will not mark you down if you take longer than someone else to park the car. Unfortunately other road users will not be as patient!

Once you start your to park your car, you may encounter other road users who beep their horn or try to overtake you. Therefore it’s important that you remain calm. Don’t rush or lose focus on what you are doing.

What are the Required observation checks?

Also referred to as ‘Blind Spot Checks or head checks’, this is the most common fail item in the New South Wales driving test. Although a lot of learner drivers are able to park their car, they often forget to perform the required observation checks whilst parking the car. Therefore they end up failing the test because that did not do the required observation checks.

A good tip here is to remember that you need to look and confirm that it is safe before you move the car. Although your mirrors are a tool and you are allowed to use them to assist you in what you are doing. You can not rely on the mirrors.

What is a Crash Avoidance Space?

Whenever you drive a car you are required to maintain a safe distance between your vehicle and the other road users and stationary objects. Surprisingly a lot of learner drivers forget to do this whilst parking the car during the test.

Therefore it’s important that you maintain your crash avoidance space whilst parking your car. You can find more information on this in the “Guide to the Driving Test”. That is the booklet you received from Services NSW when you got your learner license.

What makes Reverse Parallel Parking hard?

When the driving examiner selects a car for you to perform your reverse park on it will be different to the cars you have practiced on. Firstly it may be bigger or smaller than the cars you have practiced on. Secondly it may be parked closer or further away from the gutter than the cars you have practiced on. Thirdly it may be in a busier street that you are used too.

It addition another vehicle may decide to overtake you or beep at you whilst you are doing the reverse park. Furthermore it is not possible for you park the same distance away, or turn the wheel at the exact same point each time you park. Therefore you will need to adjust your steering and your cars position differently for each reverse park.

Learn how to park to test standards

In the New South Wales driving test you need to be able to park your car to the required standard. If you can not park your car to the standard you will not pass the driving test. It will be recorded as an immediate fail item.

Therefore you should learn to park with a quality driving school, so you can learn the necessary skills to pass the test first go. At Learn to Drive we have experienced driving instructors who will teach you everything you need to know for the test.

What are the most common mistakes on the driving test?

How close to the curb for parallel parking?