Backing In

My new skill.  Accomplished and repeated.  I've had my current car long enough to pay it off.  It's a 2018 model, my first with a back-up camera, though I've rented a few SUVs with this feature.  My driver's licenses, though, go back to 1967, including a road test failure for backing up over a curb after the inspector instructed me to parallel park.  Since then I have a lot of experience and a lot of habits, with a few insurance claims.  I park my car based on those skills, and much less expertly than the residents of big cities or paid valets park their cars.  When in a parking lot, as my need to parallel park is rare, I drive into my selected space.  Mostly I reverse out, partly using mirrors but partly the camera.  I much prefer to drive out, so until this week I've sought a space with an empty space in front of it. That lets me drive forward coming and going.  

Mostly in lots I select random spaces, those easily entered.  At OLLI these past few semesters, I selected a particular space in the lot that I consider mine.  It's only been occupied twice.  This lot has no spaces where a driver can pull forward into the next one.  All spaces abut an edge.  I see lots of cars, mostly  SUVs but some sedans backed into their spaces, and watched a few senior drivers doing that.  It is certainly safer to drive forward when classes let out and many other drivers want to leave at the same time.  Yet my usual location in the lot had been ideal for me.  It lies at the edge of a section, with the walkway adjacent to my passenger side.  I will never have to worry about avoiding an adjacent car as I exit.

This week, though, a usurper had gotten there first.  There being no other cars entering the lot and ample open spaces to my right, what better time to see what the reverse camera can do.   I positioned my car where I wanted, then placed the transmission in reverse.  The camera image appeared.  Making sure no other cars were entering that portion of the lot, I selected a space with no cars on either side.  The camera had guides to the side and to the rear.  I followed the blue lines until they matched the while lines on the asphalt, then the rear blue guides.  The red line indicates the rear of my car.  I wanted it to appear a little behind the concrete wheel guide, with the trunk at the edge of the grass.  It went smoothly, with a bare repositioning.

The next day my usual space had become available to me, but I opted to practice my new skill.  This time into a space with an adjacent car.  It went well, though I was more skittish and had to reposition twice.  Driving forward out of my space seems a lot more secure than trying to back out while not challenging other traffic.  My windshield gave me an ideal view of the other cars entering and exiting the lot as classes transitioned from early morning to late morning.

The rear camera adds safety beyond what mirrors can offer.  It can be used to parallel park, so maybe I'll look for occasions to get that experience.  And had these cameras been available as a teenager, with their use part of driver's ed instruction, I might have acquired my junior license on the first try.