Woman struggles with parallel parking for 30 minutes

October 10, 2013

Parallel parking is hard. Just ask the woman who was captured in a YouTube video while taking more than 30 minutes to parallel park her car. The woman behind the wheel caught the attention of a group of students in Belfast, Northern Ireland when she tried to parallel park her car in a space big enough for a people carrier. Students used their cell phones to take the video that has gone viral.

The video shows the woman hitting the cars in front and back of the spot where she tries to park her own car. (Source: bbc.co.uk) The clip has been viewed more than four million times and is titled ‘World’s Worst Attempt at Parallel Parking, Enjoy!’

Parallel parking is not easy. It remains “one of the more difficult and potentially stressful driving situations, with 31 percent of U.S. drivers actively avoiding parallel parking whenever possible” according to a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Ford Motors. The survey results state that 21 percent of men and 43 percent of women rate their parallel parking skills as just ‘fair’ or ‘bad’ and try to avoid the procedure whenever possible. (Source: media.ford.com)

Ford, in collaboration with Schaeffler, is working on a prototype that will have independent electric motors within each drive wheel (as opposed to a common drivetrain found in cars) to allow the cars to move sideways by rotating the tires up to 90 degrees. Such cars will eliminate the need for parallel parking altogether.

But as the eWheelDrive Fiesta prototype is still in its nascent stage, drivers will have to manage with the available self-parking options that companies like Ford (Active Park Assist) or Volkswagen (Park Assist) have in their existing vehicles.

At least that would save drivers from the embarrassment and damage caused during parallel parking attempts. Of course, drivers don’t want to raise claims frequently for damage that involves parking lot collisions or bumper scratches during sideways parking. A survey found that 30 percent of drivers thought tapping another car’s bumper while parallel parking was OK. However, scratches from such encounters could cost $400 or more. “Repair costs for these minor incidents are a major factor in overall collision coverage insurance costs” according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. (Source: sparebumper.com)