UK drivers can't park their cars: survey
Driving test overhaul well overdue
If you thought that the driving test taught parking skills, think again. A recent survey finds that UK drivers don't know how to park. According to the survey, conducted by fuel company Jet, more than a third of drivers also admitted to causing an accident when parking and for five per cent of men, the accident was serious.
However, men still believe they are the better parkers and, strangely, women agree. But the figures reveal that gung-ho men are more likely to bump another car in their attempts to park, while women appear to be suffering from a lack of confidence, with 25 per cent often asking another person to park for them. However, nearly a third of men admit to driving out their way to find an easy spot.
Astonishingly, a third of drivers on short trips give up on their journey when they can't get into a space, but despite this fact less than half of motorists think that good parking skills are necessary to be a good driver.
Instead, more than 80 per cent of drivers believe calmness under pressure is the key skill for good driving, although one in six of motorists say they have had a row with a driver who has parked badly with 1 per cent of men admitting to getting into a physical fight about parking.
The majority of bad parking is found on petrol forecourts and outside school gates according to the figures. Motorists get most annoyed when one car takes over two spaces, and nearly three quarters of drivers are frustrated when another motorist has parked too close for them to get in their car.
Roy Roley, Jet communications manager said: "Parking is the cause of many headaches for UK motorists seeing some drivers resort to violence to resolve parking disputes. Drivers do not recognise the importance of good parking skills and many prefer to hand the responsibility over to others or give up on their journey altogether.
"With such an overwhelming proportion of drivers feeling incompetent when it comes to manoeuvring their car, perhaps more attention needs to be focused on parking skills by driving schools and in the driving test.
"We also discovered that some drivers sometimes struggle to park while on the forecourt. The key to good, and peaceful, parking on the service station forecourt is to be patient, approach the pumps slowly, being careful of others on foot on the forecourt. Drive to the furthest pump in the lane to allow another driver to use other pumps and finally be careful not to park too close to the cars in another lane. It is also not advisable to attempt complex manoeuvres while close to the pumps or other drivers." Alternatively, buy one of these.
Sort out parking, then overtaking...
manek said:
I suppose it depends what speed you're doing it at!
Seriously though, you could accidentally run over a small child at 5mph quite easily, I'd suppose.
esp if the child is standing between your car and a car you're backing up to... well, technically thats not running over but crushing. still could result in death :/
total waste of money.
i have a better idea Jet - why not use some of the money earmarked for future rubbish research pieces - to lower the price of petrol.
tinman0 said:
i find these types of research quite insulting to be honest. what are they trying to achieve with this research? nothing more than a bit of PR.
total waste of money.
i have a better idea Jet - why not use some of the money earmarked for future rubbish research pieces - to lower the price of petrol.
You're spot on.
Companies do this semi-spurious survey all the time, in all sectors, and it costs them maybe a couple or three thousand a pop. So you'd save more (and get a potentially lower petrol price -- as if!) by capping directors' pay...
Whilst you can say it is a case of each to their own as to how this should be carried out, by far the easiest way is to reverse into the bay so that you have a clearer view and more manoeuvrability when the time comes to drive out. How many times to you see a car that has been put into the bay front first having to shunt forward and backward to get turned around to drive out, nudging the odd bumper here and there in the process? Looks bloody hard work to me, but then if you stick your bum in first it is difficult to get the trolley up to the boot to load up the groceries. Bit of a catch-22 really.
If you think you are king or queen of the car park, then have ago at this, and when you have, email it to yourself at work, if you are not at work already. You can waste hours of time on it. Good luck!
<a href="http://www.zurichinsurance.co.uk/game">www.zurichinsurance.co.uk/game</a>
>> Edited by Ride Drive on Wednesday 22 September 21:07
>> Edited by Ride Drive on Wednesday 22 September 23:42
1. There should be a requirement making driving school cars a minimum length, preferably a saloon Marea/Neon-size with a boot. Problem is, people pass their tests able to reverse-park a tiny little wheeled shoebox and nothing more. I personally found parking a doddle after a long weekend parking an unassisted Land Rover
2. Car Park etiquette should be on the agenda/test. I worked in a car park for a short time and the number of accidents, people driving the wrong way and appalling multi-space-occupying parking that took place was staggering. We found a lot of people shoved their cars diagonally into disabled spaces simply because they were unable to get them into normal spaces, and got irate when they were moved on. I will say one thing though - our parking spaces are too small - even Mondeos overhang the edges and anything wider than, say, a Berlingo would have accessibility problems.
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