The parking systems include the use of a rearview camera, ultrasonic sensors and a display screen set in the dashboard. Lexus and Ford engineers claim their technology can slide cars into a curbside spot in 15 to 30 seconds. Rivas often spots cars parked 2 or 3 feet away. It's the doing-it-right part that confounds so many.įor example, the law requires that a parked car be within 18 inches of the curb. The five-step process, if done right, can squeeze cars into what appear to be unlikely spaces.
California drivers test parallel parking driver#
The DMV includes a parallel parking how-to in its driver handbooks. The number of driver's licenses in effect in California has grown to 24 million, including the 100,000 licenses issued last year. “If it takes them a half-hour to get it right, it takes them a half-hour to get it right.” “It's one of those things where practice makes perfect,” said Connie Tucker, wife of Leonard Tucker. Some driving schools routinely teach the skill others will if asked. “You have no idea.”Īlthough the DMV doesn't test drivers on parallel parking, seasoned instructors say it's important for students to learn. “If I can parallel park my 1979 Volkswagen bus with no power steering, then they can park their box,” Sykes said.Įrnesto Rivas notices the same problems through the window of Winn's American Hair Co. Even then, they may wind up with one wheel on the curb, or parked too far from the curb, or unable to park at all, even if the space is long and generous. Sometimes, she even goes outside to help guide them into a spot.
Sykes said that several times a day, she spies motorists struggling to parallel park. The front door is only a few steps from the curb and metered parking. Sykes is a stylist at Planet Hair and Beyond in Hillcrest. Sykes finds their incompetence amusing, if a bit pathetic. Along many streets, parallel parking is the lone option.īarrie Sykes is a daily witness to the blundering ways of many drivers. Negotiating urban communities such as Normal Heights, downtown San Diego and Hillcrest is another story. The agency dropped the requirement in the 1970s, as the art of neck-craning and well-timed wheel-turning became less important in the daily drive.ĭMV spokesman Steve Haskins said some motorists can go for years without needing to parallel park, particularly in the suburbs with their driveways and strip-mall lots. I've never mastered it,” said Norris Ross, 41, of Oak Park, as she prepared for a lesson with Tucker last week.įor many years, the state Department of Motor Vehicles had included parallel parking in its behind-the-wheel driving exam. Until then, the sweaty-palms crowd will have to endure. Other car companies are expected to follow suit. Ford will list it as an option on several upcoming models, including the Ford Escape and the 2010 Lincoln MKT. Lexus began offering the technology in 2006.
California drivers test parallel parking how to#
“One hundred percent of our students fear it, and their parents don't know how to do it,” said Leonard Tucker, with A-AAAfordable Driving School in Normal Heights.Īt least two major automakers have started selling cars that, with little more than the push of a button and the tap of the brake, parallel park themselves. San Diego driving instructors say it's among the first subjects raised by nervous students: Are we going to try to parallel park? Are you going to make me? “People only do it when they have to, and when they do it, they park by feel,” said David Rizzo of Fullerton, a transportation consultant and former traffic reporter. The ability to park along a curb, cars lined bumper to bumper, has become something of a lost art in Southern California and across the nation, traffic experts say. They are the two words that strike dread in newbie drivers – and even many seasoned ones.
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