Online Driving Tutorial - Reverse Bay Parking

Reverse Bay Park - To The Left

There are several ways to go about the reverse bay parking exercise. I find to the left easier and more convenient, due to driving on this side of the road/isle in car parks.

Using reference points to begin with can help make this manoeuvre very simple.

First off, try to align some part of the wiper blade with the ends of the bays on your left. Something memorable just left of centre is good. The purpose of this is to help align yourself and be perpendicular with the bays and to give yourself a good clearance distance of a meter. The last thing we want is cutting tops of bays as we go in as this could result in crunching parked vehicles.

Once this has been done stop. Prepare, observe and start coming backwards until the first line you come to is visible in the corner of the passenger side window. Stop.

This reference point works for me. I sit really far back. I often get students to try and line up their back with the centre of the bay. Reference points are all down to where the driver sits. Experiment to see what works for you.

Slow car, quick hands

We're about to turn sharply, so make sure your observation now is decent and if safe, get the car moving and turn the wheel full lock to the left.

The car will swing backwards into the bay. Make sure you go slow enough so you can quickly take the turn off when parallel with the bay markings on the floor.

Once in and parallel. Stop and apply the hand brake.

The reverse bay parking exercise seems to only happen at the end of the test back at the test centre. 

Reverse Bay Park - To the right

It's essentially the same as to the left with just different reference points. Firstly you'll want to align the tops of the bays on the right with the top of the speaker. This will give you good clearance on entering the bay without clipping the corners.

Then look for a bay line over your right shoulder. When it's in the corner of your window, stop. Observe, then when safe, fill lock to the right whilst moving and slowly come around into the bay. Don't forget to straighten up your wheels at the last moment.

Again, this reference point wont work for everyone. A lot of students use the 'being in the middle of the bay' reference here.

NOTE - the second reference point of the bay you're using for a point of turn IS NOT the bay you'll be going into. You'll be going into the one after that.