Nail parallel parking with driving instructor's 'nice' and easy method
A driving instructor has showed his tutorial for how to help you reverse your parallel park first time. With just a few motions, the vehicle slots nicely into place
Parallel parking is one of the trickier manoeuvres you'll come up against when learning to drive - and probably still after you pass your test.
Parking your vehicle in a line of other cars, parallel to the road, requires quite a bit of coordination - including knowing when to turn the wheel while you're reversing, how much, and to be aware of your surroundings. The space is normally too small to drive straight into, so instead you'll need to position yourself parallel to the car in front of the one you want to park in, and then reverse.
Luckily, an expert from Driving Test Success has shared a tutorial of how to nail the parallel park in a 'nice' and easy way - without causing panic. After you've positioned yourself, you'll start reversing, while remembering to look into the rear window.
Taking to TikTok, the driving expert continued: "When I'm about halfway down this vehicle, and it is a small car, I'm going to lock my steering wheel to the left. I look in my mirror, and my right shoulder to make sure it's safe. I'm going to swing out to about 30 to 35 degrees, maximum 45, and straighten my wheels."
Then the driving expert starts backing straight into the space, and when the back of the car on his left side starts to disappear behind his car's pillar, that's when he starts turning the wheel to reverse it in. He continued: "If at this point, I need to do a correction, I can do it here. Bring the car slightly closer to the curb, get myself nicely lined up with the vehicle in front, and then straighten my wheels.
"Checking my mirror to make sure I'm nicely lined up with the curb, and then a little bit towards the rear window, just to finish off." You can see the full tutorial below.
According to another driving instructor, it's easier to parallel park if you have 'reference points'. First off you need to pull up level right next to one of the parked vehicles, around a metre away. Some people use the wing mirrors as reference points.
When it's safe, you can start reversing, but one of the main problems is that people tend to turn too early. Instead, keep reversing slowly until the first reference point, which is when the back of the other vehicle is half way across your back window. Another reference point is when the curb starts to disappear in your left wing mirror.