Why do people not back into their driveways?

[DaisyD]

I would never back into my driveway. I have a garage that I park in as soon as I get home. I am not backing into my garage. We always have kids in our driveway because it is a huge three car concrete driveway. Perfect for all kinds of fun kids stuff. I just make sure everyone knows when I'm backing out of the driveway. I also have the back up camera that comes through the GPS on my car that always works great.

 

[shep]

We live in the cul-de-sac so its never a problem to back out..And I don't want to try to back in the garage. How hard is it to tell your kids to stand somewhere you can see them because you are backing out?

 

[ZuZugal]

RunDanceSkate,

You need to add another option in your poll that I have seen others post about that applies to me as well.

I pull into my garage, but when I back out I have a "turn around" area to back onto. This means after I back out of the garage I drive forward down my driveway.

If I BACKED in all of the way up my drivway and into my garage there would be a lot more backing involved.

I also back into parking spots on certain occasions. When I pick my DS4 up from preschool, I back into a parking spot, because when we leave there are so many small children leaving with their parents that I feel much safer being able to just drive straight out of my spot.

 

[hydster]

I don't back into my driveway and garage it is hard enough doing it going forward. I drive an SUV *flame suit on* and when I go to a store I park it way out in the boonies AND I pull through the spaces so I can drive out frontwards. I make sure no one is coming into the same "stall" line I am and if they are I back up and go to another one. I've had people pull up too close to the back of my lift gate to open it so I just pull forward a little *if possible* OR I just load my purchases into the side doors. I don't see it as a huge issue.

I do have sensors on the back of my car that beep when something is near it which does help give me peace of mind about backing up in my driveway but my kids are older and there are no small children on my street so it's not a big issue that way.

 

[Becky2005]

Never heard of that! I'm quite scared to think about me backing into my garage! THAT would be scary!!! It's hard enough to drive into the garage as I'm forever having to re-adjust due to all the stuff on the 1 side of our 2 car garage & making sure I don't hit the workbench that's near the house.

Never heard about backing up -- although we live on a busy street with a curve nearby and frankly 90% of the time we are just trying to get our cars into the driveway ASAP so we don't get hit from behind with slowing down to pull in the driveway in the first place (people have no patience!) I can't imagine them having patience for us to all of a sudden up & stop & start to back up (we would basically hit the cars going forward in traffic!).

As for pulling through in a parking lot -- see I was always taught that was not proper to do (i.e. you are crossing a solid yellow line so you aren't supposed to do it). I always felt horribly guilty on the few times I have pulled completely through. I think there was some other reason too, as you may not be able to see around the arleady parked cars and someone could be pulling into the space from the other side or something like that. I don't remember exactly all the reasons but I DO know in Driver's Ed we were somehow taught that you were NOT to pull across so your car was facing out.

 

[Andy B]

Never heard about backing up -- although we live on a busy street with a curve nearby and frankly 90% of the time we are just trying to get our cars into the driveway ASAP so we don't get hit from behind with slowing down to pull in the driveway in the first place (people have no patience!) I can't imagine them having patience for us to all of a sudden up & stop & start to back up (we would basically hit the cars going forward in traffic!).

Isn't it more dangerous to back out into the oncoming traffic when leaving?

 

[Becky2005]

Hmm, probably something my husband told me years ago. He makes up his own laws and then swears they're real ones.

No, I don't think he made it up because I'm in IL, lived here all my life and am pretty sure I was told it was illegal in driver's ed too. Maybe the rules changed.

 

[Becky2005]

Isn't it more dangerous to back out into the oncoming traffic when leaving?

Umm...no..usually when we are leaving we are going into the flow of traffic.

90% of the time when we are coming home we are in the opposite lane of traffic and I have to make a left hand turn into the driveway. I can't imagine trying to back up in traffic from the opposite side of the street than where my house is. Only Semi's are allowed to do that because people know to give them clear paths (and it's extremely rare to see a Semi doing that on our street -- they just block one side of the street because it would be a moving truck!). If I were to pass my house & then try to back up, someone would think I was turning into my neighbors driveway since that is where I would have to go. They would stop but they certainly wouldn't give me enough room to back up!!!! THEN trying to manuver between my DH's car & the basketball pole,while trying to back up in the middle of the road (at least during the busy part of the day).

People would not be expecting it since it's rare for anyone to back up into their driveway.

If I saw someone doing that, I would think they were someone who didn't know how to drive.

The only other way to do that would be to pull in to our drive a small way, then back out so we are on the correct side of the road, pull up then past our mailbox and THEN back in. Seems like an awful lot of work rather than just driving straight in, backing up when we need to leave.

 

[pppiglet]

Never heard about backing up -- although we live on a busy street with a curve nearby and frankly 90% of the time we are just trying to get our cars into the driveway ASAP so we don't get hit from behind with slowing down to pull in the driveway in the first place (people have no patience!) I can't imagine them having patience for us to all of a sudden up & stop & start to back up (we would basically hit the cars going forward in traffic!).

Same here!

Isn't it more dangerous to back out into the oncoming traffic when leaving?

No...the traffic to watch coming the other way on my street is minimal (dead end street), but when they are coming the opposite way to get to their houses they are flying!

A 3yr old was killed here locally last week when his father backed into his driveway, but then pulled forward just a bit. The pulling forward was when he hit the kid because as he was watching the rear to back in, the kid ran in front of his truck to greet him. The truck was too high to see the kid in the front when he pulled forward.

 

[Jestocost]

My driveway is 140' long from the street to my garage, and runs through a very narrow section with the house on one side and a fence on the other. In addition, our street isn't busy enough that it's difficult to back out of the driveway.

Those good enough reasons?

 

[teacher2001]

All this talk of backing in and backing out has convinced me to just buy a helicopter. That way I go straight up and straight down.


Now I have to worry about those darn spinning rotors of death.

 

[ADisneygirl]

I can't back into my driveway because I park in my garage. No way am I talented enough to back into the garage!

 

[juligrl]

I drive into my driveway but park in my rear-entry garage. When I leave, I back out the 12 feet onto the lower part of my driveway and drive up the 30 feet to the street.

At my old house we used to back in from the alley into our driveway because it was easier to get out forward facing since we were at the end of the alley.

Cindy
Side pet peeve, why do some people not pull all the way through when the parking spot in front of them is open? Why wouldn't you want to drive out instead of backing out.

Somebody else approaching in the opposite side who doesn't see me pulling through and goes whiping into the spot which I'm pulling into . That and angled spaces for one way rows.

 

[cardaway]

No...the traffic to watch coming the other way on my street is minimal (dead end street), but when they are coming the opposite way to get to their houses they are flying!

I also leave in the morning when very few cars are on the road. Certainly a better time to be backing into the street or holding up traffic.

 

[teacherforhi]

I have a carport. The few times I've tried to back in (because I have something heavy in the back) have been near disasters. It's much easier to back in to the wide street, than just try to aim between the carport supports.

 

[Hermosa11]

I always back in at work parking spot. (but I take light rail now, so that no longer applies)....
I back in for unloading groceries.
When I young, my parents had a 1968 Pontiac Firebird (appx. year of incident: 1974-1977. We lived in a duplex. I backed in the vehicle and it was parked outside as always. I was going to car to go to school or work ( I cannot remember) and the hood was GONE! Someone just plain out TOOK it.
AUGGHH!!!!

 

[Lanshark]

I pull in and back out. Haven't had an issue for 30 years. Don't assume all driveways are either flat or straight. Georgia has some doozies.