[As promised, the rebuttal …– Ed]
Forsooth, Mark’s piece is good-natured hyperbole, but his claim that “after years of close study, I have arrived at the conclusion that people who back into parking spaces are history’s greatest monsters” remains a libelous charge against the hardest-working and most American Americans: the parking-spot backer-uppers. This whole ordeal is especially galling coming from a man whose only stress injuries likely involve carpal tunnel from Apple’s anti-ergonomic membrane keyboards. …
Setting aside the obvious superiority of parking far enough away to pull through a spot to face forward on the opposite adjoining side, Mark’s arguments here don’t erase the reality of having to back up at one time or another. The question is whether it is better to back up immediately upon arrival when one commands the best view and knowledge of surrounding events or persons; or after, when a driver’s mind is on his haul and has just wrestled his children into their safety contraptions. AAA and fleet safety experts suggest backing in immediately to be the superior option, even if a car has backup cameras.
If the above is true of the average vehicle, its veracity compounds for longer wheelbase working trucks and vans that are best operated with delicacy by backing in[,] with the tires rotating under the driver, he has superior control of his vehicle’s approach vectors and distances through proper mirror use. As an HVAC repairman, my Ford E250 work van was most obedient in reverse, and a cruise ship in forward.
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