How do you park your car in your country?
I recently was hired to teach an American family moving here from Texas. They are still in Texas so we are doing it online, which is making scheduling a little strange, but the job pays well so I'm up for it. It's basically a cultural training class. More often I teach these to Japanese folks moving to America for a year or two (it's fairly common for companies here to send people overseas for a few years, whether they want to go or not), but occasionally I get these requests for foreigners moving to Japan.
Just another of the kinds of classes I teach at my school, I suppose, @deraaa.
Anyway, since it is just one family and not a large class, I am taking more of a Q&A approach, letting their curiosity and interests guide what we cover, or at least the order of which we cover things.
One thing that the husband asked me during our last class might be of interest to many of you on Hive. He asked me "Is it true that the Japanese always back-into parking spots?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
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Backing in for a late night snack at a convenience store - By David Magalhães
Hmm...why? Kind of a dumb question. I mean, why not, right? But also I do get his curiosity. Because in America backing-in is not the normal way to do it. There are some folks in the States who enjoy backing into parking spots, but these people are definitely the exception. The vast majority always drives into parking spots nose first.
I'd guess Americans do it this way just because it's easier. Not only is driving in nose-first easier, but backing out is much easier than backing in because precision is not as important. Sad to say, I think technical driving skills of Americans are not very high. Most of us "learn" how to drive in high school drivers ed class, which usually is run by an uninterested gym teacher who mostly just makes us watch videos and might only take us out for actual driving once or twice in the entire class. Then most States (maybe all?) exempt us from having to take the drivers test if we took drivers ed class. The end result is a very large percentage of America drivers don't actually have much skill at driving, at least not when they start, and most probably never really gain that skill. One of those things that I imagine many high school drivers ed classes skip over is backing up (parallel parking is another I think gets skipped over). A surprisingly amount of people have no idea how to back up.
Contrast this to Japan where if you want to get a drivers license you have to go to a very expensive driving school which teaches more technical skills than most Americans are even aware of, then you have a difficult driving test which tests far more things than the American test (which most Americans never take anyway). Due to this, I think the Japanese are usually much more able to back a car in than Americans.
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Tight Spot - By dmeurer
[Note, again, I am speaking in generalities. As I mentioned above, I know there is a minority of Americans who love to back in to spaces and as a result of all the practice doing it, are quite good at it. So please no comments below from angry people telling me you know how to back up. I know you exist, but face it, you are in the minority.]
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Nice car - By vaea Garrido
The advantages of backing in are obvious: leaving will be much easier. Police in the US will typically back in for this exact reason. You never know when you will have to leave in a hurry due to an emergency, and if you are in a hurry, you don't want to be forced to back out slowly as you watch to avoid backing into other people walking to their cars. Even if it's not an emergency, leaving is just easier when you can drive right out.
Backing-in outside an old house - By m-louis
Anyway, there you go. They had a few more questions about it (The wife, for example, was worried that others may impatiently honk at you if you back in as they might in America, but I assured her that since the majority of Japanese back in, they are completely used to it and are patient.) but overall that is the long and short of it.
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These car lift parking places are impressive - By Joseph Tame
So how about your country? How do people park around you? Let me know in the comments!
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |
I think it mostly has to do with being prepared for an emergency. When you’re trying to evacuate during an earthquake or a tsunami warning, you definitely don’t want to deal with a parking lot full of cars trying to back out of their spaces.
I suspect the narrowness of roads and parking lots also adds to this, though. I find pulling into parking spaces head first to be so much more difficult in Japan (I still do it from time to time). 🤣
The emergency case is my guess too. I didn't think about the narrowness of roads and lots. Good point! There are some tight and narrow lots that backing in is actually easier now that all our cars have the backing in camera.
This has to be the most detailed post I’ve read on parking. Parking in Nigeria? I honestly can’t say because it’s pretty much lawless (the parking). Unless there’s an order sign to not park there, you can pretty much park your ass anywhere. Most annoying is seeing the two way parking that happens on narrow roads and leads to traffic jams. Or trailers just curling up like slime where they aren’t wanted. lol.
No tickets. Or fines. lol. Just park it like you drive it.
Oh this is nothing. I often take a deeper dive into subjects than this brief intro.
Ah I've seen parking like that when I visited the Philippines. Not just parking there, but driving itself is pretty lawless and terrifying for someone like myself.
The driving system has gotten a complete overhaul since you and I were kids. At least in this immediate area. It's much longer and more involved and in many cases it isn't even done through the schools anymore. That doesn't mean the quality of the instructor is great. Speaking of parking, I was saving this meme for a post, but I will share it with you here...
Is that overhaul for all of Michigan or just your area? I'm not sure how the system works exactly. I would think the State gov sets regulations that the entire State has to follow, but it could be county by county. I don't know if it's changed in Indiana yet. I've hear a lot of complaints about drivers ed at the local high school in the city where my mom still teaches. I hope it is improving though!
heh I like that meme. 😃
I'm not sure about that. I just know that when I was younger it was my math teacher and we took the class right at school. I think my dad drove with me once and said "you are better than your sister was when she started" and then boom I had my license. Now they spread it out over what seems like a year or more and they have stages you have to finish and stuff. I think Ohio is similar. Oh, they also don't even hold the courses at school anymore, you have to pay a private company to do all the training and driving practice.
Mostly Nose out parking here too.
I know they did away with drivers education by the time my boys were in high school. We had to pay a private drivers education business for classes, they then provided a certificate that you took to the BMV for the learners permit. It sounded like some of the driving instructors were former drivers ed teachers or teachers of some sort.
Interesting! Hopefully that is better for the quality of teaching and is not just another private company money grab.
I notice combini customers don't back in as much as every other parking area like malls, shopping centers, etc. I don't like backing in because it seems to require more time and patience than pulling in nose first. I do respect Japanese for their parking skills though, especially homeowners like the picture you posted of the blue Xb.
BTW, nice consulting work. I may have to look into that.
I don't think I can park like that anymore! This is a very nice post showing the Japanese tidy parking culture. Tiny cars are also natsukashii!
When I had a driving test (I had to do it because I couldn't transfer my Japanese license in this province 😭), I noticed that the parking spaces here are much bigger than in Japan! I was soooo nervous about street parking, but... Huh? I found it too easy because there was so much space. Everything is tiny and tidy (ちゃんとちゃんと) in Japan... good and bad...
That's funny! I tend to back into places when I can because it makes getting out much easier it you are in a hurry. You have a great niche there, to teach people how to live in a foreign environment. I've lived enough outside the US that I don't really worry about those thinks. You learn as you go!