ANCLE PARKING IN LAMBTON QUAY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 142, 12 December 1935, Page 10

ANCLE PARKING IN LAMBTON QUAY

(To the Editor.)

~ Slr'—ln aU the reports as regards the above which have been appearing in the papers recently I have been surprised that "back-in" parking has been generally recommended, and that no mention has been made of the "nose-in" parking system which is in operation in Palmerston North and other towns in that vicinity. As one whose business necessitates my practically living in my car and parking from ten to thirty times a day, I feel I am qualified to express an opinion on this subject, and I would claim that the nose-in system is very much more satisfactory than the back-in system for a variety of reasons quite apart from the overhang question.

In backing in the driver has first to pull well out into the road across traffic, stop, and then reverse slowly into the space available between, two other cars. Even the experienced driver has to exercise care in this operation in order to park at the correct angle and with correct spacing on either side. A novice would find it difficult and might have to make two or three shots, coining out into the traffic on each occasion and probably getting badly flustered before he was correctly parked. Whereas it is easy to drive a car nose-in into a narrow space, and this can be done with dispatch and with a smaller sweep out than in back-in parking.

Backing out from a nose-in parking position can be done without difficulty by any driver, and again the sweep out takes up less traffic room than the backing-in operation. The driver has, of course, to watch the oncoming traffic through his rear window and await his opportunity, but this presents no difficulty, and I contend that the backing-out operation causes much less dislocation of traffic than the backing-in operation does, and can be done in a smaller area of roadway.

Another point is that even with the nose-in system a bad driver is apt to park at too obtuse an angle, thus blocking a car parked correctly on his right. With the more difficult backingin system this possibility is enhanced.

May I respectfully suggest to the authorities ultimately responsible for the decision as regards angle parking in Lambton Quay that they get an opinion from Palmerston North, and even, if possible, go to Palmerston North and try out the system on Broadway on a busy afternoon, afterwards trying the back-in system in force in Courtenay Place. I believe they would find that there is no comparison between the two systems.

Another argument in favour of nosein parking is that a number of towns in the vicinity of Palmerston North have this system, having presumably copied it from that city on finding it good. They are Feilding, Levin, Foxton, Shannon, Pahiatua (in one part of the main street), and Eketahuna. I do not know about Dannevirke, as I do not go there. —I am, etc., MANUREP.