Parallel Parking: Too far or too close to the curb? Here’s how to fix it

in most of my videos on parallel parking i show you how to park in three main steps align your side mirror with the mirror of the vehicle to your side reverse until you see its license plate aligned in the middle of your passenger window then reverse until you're parallel with the sidewalk that second step where you align the other vehicle's plate in the middle of your window is what will determine the distance you have from the sidewalk and that's the step i'm going to discuss in this video i put the link for the main parallel parking video and a few other useful ones in the description of this video i've had a few comments from people saying that they're either too far from the sidewalk or that they keep hitting it when they try this method so let's imagine that the plate of the other vehicle extends to our passenger window like this the more i reverse the more i'll see the plate to the left of my window and the closer i'll be to the sidewalk the more i advance the more i'll see it towards the right of the window and the further i'll be from the sidewalk here from inside the vehicle reversing closer to the sidewalk plate moves to the left advancing away from the sidewalk plate moves to the right so with that in mind if i'm too close to the sidewalk i'll need to align the plate more towards the right of my window before reversing and if i'm too far i'll need to align it a bit more towards the left now this method usually works well when both vehicles are more or less the same size especially compact vehicles which are the most common ones and also the ones mostly used by driving schools but here are a few factors that can influence your distance from the sidewalk first is if you're aligning yourself with the vehicle of a different size when i parked next to this car i was at the right distance from the curb now let's say that i want to park next to that bigger vehicle in front since it's wider than the other vehicle its plate is also further away from the sidewalk than the plate of the other vehicle let's say one foot so if i align myself with it i'll also be one foot further away from the sidewalk than i was with the other vehicle hence i'll be too far from the sidewalk after the whole maneuver so in this case i should align the plate a bit more towards the left of my window in other words i'm moving closer to the sidewalk now the opposite is also true let's say that i am the one parking the bigger vehicle if i align the plate in the middle i'll probably hit the curb since my vehicle is wider and longer so in this case i should align the plate a bit more towards the right of the window further away from the sidewalk usually the bigger the vehicle the more towards the right you'll need to align the plate sometimes even past the passenger window if you have a really big vehicle so vehicle size is one factor that could influence the result something else that can cause you to be too far or too close is if you lean too much forward or backward when aligning yourself most of the time students lean forward because it's something we tend to do instinctively when we want to look at something more closely here i'm stopped and i see the other vehicle's plate aligned with the middle of my window if i lean forward i see the plate more towards the left if i lean backwards i see it more towards the right so if when aligning myself i'm leaning forward like this i won't see the plate in the same position as i would see it when i move my body back in my natural driving position so try to keep your head in your natural driving position when aligning with the plate if then you're too close or too far from the curb try the maneuver again while aligning the plate in a different position in your window but make sure to keep your head in the same position as before if your head is in a different position every time you try you'll always get different results after you've aligned with the plate then you can move your body whatever way is necessary to do your maneuver properly and safely and another thing that might have an influence is the vehicle itself for example if the vehicle is a four door a two two-door the width and configuration of the windows the height of the vehicle and so on also if the other vehicle is too far from the curb and you use it as a reference to align yourself you'll probably be too far from the curb too so something else we should do before parallel parking is to check the distance from the sidewalk of the vehicle we're aligning with if it's too far we align its plate a bit more towards the left of our window now if you can't see the plate try to align the center of the other car in the middle of your window in this case i align the logo in reality that's what we've been doing all along when i recommend you use the plate it's because it's a lot easier to use as a reference since in the vast majority of vehicles it's positioned right in the center if you're parking next to a vehicle that doesn't have the plate in the center align the center of the vehicle in the middle of your window now being too close or too far from the curb could be due to one of those factors a mix of some or all of them or maybe even some different ones that i didn't cover there are just too many variables in this situation the thing to remember is if you're too far from the curb align the other vehicle's plate more towards the left of your passenger window if you're too close align it more towards the right and try to keep your body in the same position every time you align yourself which should be more or less your natural driving position and the reference point trick works for any reference point you use i like to use the plate but if you use another method where you align with let's say the left back light same thing basically the more the reference points move towards the left the closer you're getting to the sidewalk the more they move towards the right the further away you're going next video how to park at 90 degrees with a reverse camera so stay tuned and see you soon bye

Channel: Conduite Facile

Views: 694,109

Keywords: Parallel parking too close to the curb, Parallel parking too close to the sidewalk, Parallel parking too far from to the curb, Parallel parking too far from to the sidewalk, parallel parking easy, parallel parking the right way, how to parallel park easily, easy parallel parking, right distances parallel parking, Parallel parking, parallelel parking lesson, parallel parking tutorial, parallel parking driving test, parallel parking Canada, parallel parking quebec

Id: 097tL24VJDo

Length: 5min 59sec (359 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 10 2021