Comparing parking techniques - accident probabilities 2

[dhjdhj]

I'm trying to find some information (statistics) showing which method of parking is the safest and which is the most dangerous. I'm particularly interested in head-in vs back-in parking in village parking lots, typically those built to support local shopping.

Although I've found some casual references from searching, I have not been able to find any meaningful data.

I'm particularly interested in the justification for head-in parking as opposed to back-in parking. It seems to me that reversing OUT of a parking space has more potential to cause an accident and the main reason of head-in parking seems to be that it's "easier". My own sense is that if don't have the ability toback in to a parking space properly, you're going to have a lot more trouble backing OUT of one!

Thanks in advance,

David Jameson

 

[ACtrafficengr]

Seattle and Wash DC have reverse angled parking on some of their city streets. They may have some numbers for you.

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"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail."

Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

 

[dhjdhj]

Uhmm....not exactly sure how one gets information from Seattle or Wash DC - (call 555-1212 - connect me to Seattle please

Aren't there any studies published in peer-reviewed journals that address this kind of thing?

Thanks,
D

 

[ACtrafficengr]

Try this:

http://trisonline.bts.gov/search.cfm/

------------------------------------------
"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail."

Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

 

[dhjdhj]

Thanks - however the only reference I found there was to "ANGLE PARKING ISSUES REVISITED, 2001" which is one of the few articles I had already found (indeed before I found THIS forum). It doesn't really provide statistics for head-in vs head-out parking accidents.

My sense is that reversing out of a parking spot has the potential to cause more accidents and I'm struggling to find the reasons why some villages require head-in parking.

D

 

[ACtrafficengr]

I agree- especially when a small vehicle is parked next to a light truck and is backing out blind.

Many people are averse to change. Reverse angle parking requires learning a new skill set, and people are either too fearful or too lazy to do so. Plattsburg, NY experimented with reverse-angle parking a few years ago, and removed it due to public pressure. I don't think they gave it long enough to prove that it works.

The same thing happens with roundabouts. 70% of the populace will strongly oppose them when they are first introduced to an area. A year afterwards, you usually have 70% approval.

------------------------------------------
"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail."

Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

 

[TerryScan]

You may need to consider how you searched. Using "accidents and parking", among the results, I found:

ID: 01001213 Angle Parking on Iowa's Low Volume Primary Extensions in Small Towns
snip from abstract: "However, when average crash rates for various parking types were compared for non-intersection crashes, differences in rates between areas with diagonal parking and those with parallel parking were almost negligible. In fact, those observed rates were less than sample locations with no parking at all."

ID: 00824893
Title: CHANGING ON-STREET PARALLEL PARKING TO ANGLE PARKING

 

[dhjdhj]

To ACtrafficengr :
I'm not so concerned about angled parking - I'm just talking about reversing into a 90 degree parking spot as opposed to driving in head first and then having to reverse out.

I am definitely assumeone that one knows how to reverse into a parking spot - if you can't reverse in, how on earth can you reverse out safely?


To TerryScan:
I'm specifically interested in the issue of head-in vs. head-out parking into a 90 degree parking spot. I'm not surprised that there's very little difference between parallel and angle parking although many SUV drivers seem to have a lot of trouble with the former!

 

[TerryScan]

dhjdhj:

I was simply pointing out that the search terms can heavily influence the results you get. Also, I only glanced at the abstracts. One can sometimes find the information you are looking for in the full article.

It is likely there have been no studies with respect to your specific question. Also, it may be one of those things that is NOT easily accessible from the web.

"Uhmm....not exactly sure how one gets information from Seattle or Wash DC - (call 555-1212 - connect me to Seattle please"

From the their websites:
District Department of Transportation
2000 14th Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20009 (202) 673-6813

Seattle Department of Transportation
700 5th Avenue - Suite 3900
PO Box 34996
Seattle, WA 98124-4996 (206) 684-ROAD (7623)

Far from a study, my experience is that it IS much safer to back into 90d spaces than back out. It does seems rather obvious (fewer number of potential blind conflicts?). My question would be: how does one dictate or influence one method over another in 90d spaces?

 

[CaliforniaTraffic]

You might keep in mind that there are some downsides to back-in parking, some significant enough that the City of San Jose (Calif) passed an ordinance making it illegal to back into parking stalls. The rationale is that drivers go faster when moving forward than backwards. People who park head-in need to back out slowly in the lot to get underway, whereas the people who back in can accelerate out quickly. Apparently they had some pedestrians who got hit by the people coming out too quickly. There is also the obvious one...you don't want people bringing their shopping carts in between cars to get to their trunks when they load up, thus dinging the paint on other vehicles. A fellow engineer advised me of a city of Arizona where they went with back-in 45 degree angle on-street parking, but no licensed engineer I know will touch that one with a ten-foot pole.

 

[dhjdhj]

It's my experience too but as a scientist I've learned not to depend JUST on experience - nothing beats hard data.

--->my experience is that it IS much safer to back into 90d spaces than back out


Interesting - the village where I live also has such an ordinance - I'd like to see it overturned (because I also think it's safer to reverse in to a spot)....however, your rationale is the first argument I've heard for why it might be a bad idea. So the question becomes, which is the more dangerous risk, reversing out of a spot and hitting someone because you can't see them or driving out fast and hitting someone that you CAN see? (and if you saw them, why did you hit them?)

--->City of San Jose (Calif) passed an ordinance.......the rationale is that drivers go faster when moving forward than backwards.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

I just ran across this report: ROADWAY SAFETY DESIGN SYNTHESIS: Incorporating Safety into the Highway Design Process.

It doesn't address back-in vs pull-in parking, but it does address curb parking vs angle parking. Angle parking has a crash modification factor of 2.8, which is a good argument for its elimination.

http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-4703-P1.pdf

------------------------------------------
"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail."

Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

 

[dhjdhj]

Thanks - I had already seen that article - but I didn't think I could argue that comparing angle parking to curb parking was sufficiently similar to head-in vs. head out parking.

D

 

[ABKaminski]

I too am interested in reverse angle vs. forward load angle parking accident data. I found a non-numeric discussion in this Indiana town with references to other USA towns. It also contains a great description supporting the reasons reverse works better than forward loading. We too are considering reverse angle parking on a one way street. CHeck out the link below...

http://www.crownpoint.in.gov/parking_plan/chapter2.pdf