The mystery of perfect parallel parking is solved (by a woman)
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Your support makes all the difference.Perfect parallel parking is easy – provided you use a formula from a female mathematician.
The fact that poor reversing causes £151m of damage every year, according to insurance estimates, was the spur for Rebecca Hoyle, a doctor of mathematics at the University of Surrey, to devise the formula.
It allows for the main variables – the width of the car, its turning circle, the optimal distance from the kerb, and the starting distance between the axles and the kerb. Then, to perform the perfect S-shaped parallel reverse park, the formula says drivers should:
- choose space at least half as long again as car
- start parallel to car ahead
- turn wheel to left-lock while reversing
- when car reaches 45 degrees to space, turn wheel to full right-lock
- as car approaches kerb, straighten up.
If this sounds familiar, be grateful it wasn't Dr Hoyle's full version. "[The problem] can be expressed as a motion-control problem using shape change," she says.
"But in practice this formula should be supplemented with some pure common sense – such as using any available reflections in cars opposite to judge your position."
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