Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Christian Sager here. Whether it's cooking an egg, skinning
Speaker 1: a cat, or building an underground bunker to prepare for
Speaker 1: end times, there is usually more than one way to
Speaker 1: do most things. When it comes to driving a car.
Speaker 1: For example, motorists tend to have some wildly varying ideas
Speaker 1: about how to best get from point A to point B.
Speaker 1: That's not to mention timeless driving debates over how to
Speaker 1: occupy the far left lane on a highway, when to
Speaker 1: turn on your lights, or if you should pull over
Speaker 1: for a funeral procession. Then there's the question of what
Speaker 1: to do when you want to stop driving and leave
Speaker 1: your car somewhere. Many motorists are united in their strict
Speaker 1: aversion to parallel parking, but how to navigate other spots
Speaker 1: is still a source of some debate. Is it better
Speaker 1: to turn headfirst into a parking space or to take
Speaker 1: the time to park backed in facing out in what
Speaker 1: some refer to as battle parking. Buckle up for the answer.
Speaker 1: For both safety and efficiency purposes, the experts say it
Speaker 1: is usually best to back into a parking space. That's
Speaker 1: because having a wide field of vision is more important
Speaker 1: when you're pulling out of a parking space than it
Speaker 1: is when you're pulling in. Katherine Peterman, an architect who
Speaker 1: has helped design parking lots across the United States, told
Speaker 1: us that when you back in, it's into a defined
Speaker 1: space where people aren't likely to be, but when you
Speaker 1: pull out of a parking space, you're pulling into traffic
Speaker 1: and possibly into pedestrians. Sure, technological advances like rear side
Speaker 1: cameras and those sensors that make beeping noises when you
Speaker 1: get too close to a person or another car, they
Speaker 1: can help make backing out easier, but the effect those
Speaker 1: cameras have had on reducing accidents has been gradual at best.
Speaker 1: Peterman and Vanessa so Lisby, a spokesperson for the International
Speaker 1: Parking Institute, say that it's because backing out is still
Speaker 1: not as easy as driving out head first, and both
Speaker 1: acknowledge that backing into a parking space is often easier
Speaker 1: said than done. New or inexperienced drivers may feel uncomfortable
Speaker 1: trying to negotiate a prime space backwards. The rest of
Speaker 1: us may simply feel pressure or you know, hear the
Speaker 1: shrieking horns from traffic as it piles up during the process,
Speaker 1: as backing in can take a few more seconds than
Speaker 1: pulling in front fender first. That's why Peterman recommends that
Speaker 1: drivers look for spots where the space in front of
Speaker 1: you is also open, so you can pull through. But
Speaker 1: convincing folks to back that thing up is going to
Speaker 1: take some time. That's especially true as smartphones, smart dashboards,
Speaker 1: and other technological advances within cars compete for drivers time
Speaker 1: and attention, and while the experts may say it's the
Speaker 1: way to go, not everyone is so quick to adopt
Speaker 1: the practice. Today's episode was written by Chris Opfer, produced
Speaker 1: by Tristan McNeil, and For more on this and other topics,
Speaker 1: please visit us at how stuff works dot com.