When it comes to parking your car, there are many different ways to go about doing it, such as pulling in, backing in and parallel parking. Each form of parking has its own specific circumstances for when it is most useful. The way you park can often help or hinder you from leaving the parking lot.
Pulling into a parking space is without a doubt the easiest way to park a car. All you do is find a parking spot and turn in. There really isn't much more to it (outside of staying within the parking lines). This is most often used when you have an allotted parking space at work or are going shopping. It typically isn't hard to leave the mall or grocery store so pulling in is perfectly adequate. However, if you think there may be traffic when you leave, backing out of your space may become difficult to do and the pulling in method might not be the best way to park.
Backing into a parking space is a little more challenging than pulling in. For this you need to watch the review mirrors and look behind your car carefully to make sure there is no one behind you and that you are not coming into contact with any other cars. The great advantage of the back in method is that you are already ready to go when you get back into your car. You will not need the extra room to back out. This method is best used when you are going to a sporting event or concert where there will be a large amount of people leaving at the same time. Because there are hundreds, if not thousands of cars in one spot, it may be extremely difficult to find time to back out of the spot. Backing in, for this instance, will not only save you time while leaving but a big headache as well.
For people who live out in the country or away from larger cities you may never have the need to parallel park. This is most often found in larger cities and is by far the most difficult method of parking your car. To perform a parallel parking maneuver you will need to pull up about a car's length beyond the open space. Leave about a foot or two between yourself and the parked car next to you. Back up slowly, and when about a third of the car is along side the open space turn the steering wheel toward the space. This will turn the back end of your car to make additional room. Once the trunk of your car is almost to the curb turn the steering wheel the other way to straighten it out. This should give you enough room to fit your entire car into the space. There really isn't a special time when you should perform a parallel parking job, except for when there is a parallel space open.
