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For those in regions without reverse angle parking (like me)…

It's used in areas where you might have roadside parking along a road, either parallel or angled. It has higher linear density than parallel and is easier/faster. Compared to forward angled parking it removes the "backing out into traffic you can't see because your rear pillars and the hausfrauenpanzer next to you have completely blocked view of the oncoming traffic" (so you go slow and figure any drivers coming down the road don't want to die today either). You safe the road by stopping to park, and have road visibility as you back in. Coming out you get better visibility because your upstream neighbors corner is further from the traffic and your eyeballs are also closer. An added bonus is that bicyclists have very little reason to ride in the zone of opening doors, compared to parallel parking.

Some places it is popular. Changing to it from forward angled makes people crabby.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-in_angle_parking



hausfrauenpanzer This needs immediate adoption in English, it fits perfectly!


In Melbourne, Australia, they're called Toorak Tractors, in reference to the affluent suburb where they're common.

Just like Hausfrauenpanzer, with bonus alliteration!


Interesting -- in England we have the equivalent "Chelsea tractor".


Soccer-mom SUV is probably the equivalent, no?


House-wife tank is so much better.


Bit sexist though, no?


And "soccer mom" isn't?


I was kind of replying to both - though I guess that wasn't fully apparent.


Doesn't have quite the same easy association with a lumbering slab of unwieldy armour. Perhaps picture a Panzer IV rolling down the high street, rolling over a bicycle or two, before going right through the supermarket wall.


The German has such a more enjoyable roll coming off the tongue though.


"Soccer Personnel Carrier"


> hausfrauenpanzer

Upvoted just for this one word!


"housewife panzer tank" if anyone is wondering.


Well now everyone is googeling what the hell is panzer and story beyond this inside joke.


What's the advantage over back-in perpendicular parking? I don't actually think your eyeballs are closer to the road (since the diagonal to your front corner is longer than the line to your nearest headlight), and you can always force neighboring cars to be further away by just painting the lines wider apart.

At first I wondered if the road can be slightly narrower while still allowing one to get into the parking space, but if you look in the OP article at how the orange envelope is shaped by the way the front end swings around, I don't really think that's the case.

In general, I'm confused about why angle parking is picked over perpendicular parking. It's significantly less linear density (reduced by the factor cos(theta)), but the square shape of cars means the road width occupied by the parking is hardly less. (The wasted space is the triangular patches between the parked cars and the road/sidewalk.) Parallel parking has even lower linear density, of course, but takes half the road width.


I've never seen perpendicular parking outside of a parking lot. one immediate issue is that many vehicles will not have a sharp enough turning radius to make a right angle turn from a single width traffic lane into the space. they will have to make a multiple-point turn and/or cross into the far lane (possibly with opposing traffic) to get into the space. I can't imagine how this wouldn't be a huge obstruction every time someone parked something larger than a honda fit.


I see perpendicular parking pretty often. It's probably at least as common as angled parking in San Francisco (although obviously much less common than parallel parking).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardipus/2575893591/


Perpendicular parking on SF’s steep streets usually has huge backouts and is necessary due to the high pitch.


I see perpendicular and parallel parking on the same street, so I don't really understand the necessary claim.


One advantage I can imagine would be that it's safer for exiting drivers. They are partially blocked by the vehicle next to them. It also eliminates the cyclist "door zone".


90 degree parking requires wider drive aisles because more of the forward/reverse turning radius is required...all of it.


Matt Parker just made a great video about this very topic (including the math you get into).

https://youtu.be/0rxghexCKj8




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