How To Bay Park

The advice given on this page has been written by fully qualified Driving Standards Agency Approved Driving Instructors (DSA ADIs) and is intended only for UK drivers and those taking the UK Practical Driving Test.

Please be aware that road traffic legislation and what is considered good driving practice varies throughout the world!

You may be asked to perform this manoeuvre right at the start of your driving test before you leave the test centre car park, or you may do it at the end of the test on your return to the car park.

If you are asked to bay park at the beginning of your test, the examiner will say something along the lines of;

"Drive forward a short distance either to the left or to the right, so that your wheels are straight, then reverse into a convenient parking bay. Try and position your car between the white lines."

If the manoeuvre is being done at the end of the test, the examiner's request will be along the lines of;

"I should like you to reverse park in the car park. Drive forward into the car park, then reverse into a convenient parking bay. Finish within one of the bays."

Many driving test centre car parks are small and very busy, and while it is useful to practice your bay parking in the place where you will be doing it for your test, you must not get in the way of people actually taking their driving tests - for this reason, you should learn how to bay park in a suitable public car park which allows learner drivers to practice there and stay away from test centre car parks while driving tests are in progress.

Some driving test centres don't have car parks or have car parks that are unsuitable and if that is the case for the test centre you will be using, you won't be asked to do the bay parking manoeuvre.

Let's start with a summarised list of what's required for reversing into a parking bay. You may find it helpful to use this list as a memory jogger (aide memoire) - you could even copy it and print it out!

For those who prefer instructions given visually, there are some bay parking tutorial videos further down the page - some with an audio commentary for those who like to listen to what they need to do!

HOW TO REVERSE INTO A PARKING BAY;

1. Start about one car's width from the parking bay that you wish to reverse park into and one car length past it

2. Line up your reference point (more about reference points below!)

3. Select reverse gear

4. Full observation - all round the car

5. Slowly start to move the car backwards while turning the steering wheel quickly to full left lock (if you're reversing into a bay on the left) or full right lock (if you're reversing into a bay on your right)

6. Keep looking all around as you go back

7. As the car comes to around a 45 degree angle to the bay, look in the left door mirror (left hand bays) or right door mirror (right hand bays). You will see the side of the car and the white line. Decide if the car will fully enter into the bay. If you think it will, leave your steering on full lock. If not, turn the wheel approx half a turn in the opposite direction

8. When the back wheel enters the bay by passing inside the white line, ensure that full left lock (left hand bays) or right lock (right hand bays) is applied

9. When the side of the car and the line look straight in the mirror, keep the car moving slowly and straighten the wheel

10. Look at least once over both shoulders as you come back into the bay and stop once you are fully in the bay - be very careful at this point not to lose your concentration and go too far back and hit the kerb!

11. Handbrake on and gear lever into neutral

Reference points are used to help learner drivers know whether they are in the right place to start a manoeuvre/when to turn and so on, when reversing.

For bay parking, some driving instructors teach their students to line up parts of the car with line markings on bays, others may use stickers attached to the doors or windows etc.

Reference points will be different for every vehicle, so don't take it as read that you should "line up with the left door mirror" just because that's what your friend did when they learnt to drive!

Your driving instructor will let you know which reference points they want you to use on their car.

It's sometimes easier to actually see something done, rather than just read a set of instructions!

The following videos will give you visual instructions to help you learn how to do the bay parking manoeuvre.

All the videos are presented in a different format - one is animated and two are "real-life" driving lessons presented by a fully qualified DSA Approved Driving Instructor.

Ending up straddling two bays
No blind spot checks
Relying too much or entirely on the mirrors
Ineffective observation
Looking but not reacting to other vehicles or pedestrians
Waiting too long for other users in the car park

*source - Retired driving examiner David Joberns

The Official DSA Guide to Driving:
the essential skills

Driving Test Success ALL Tests 2008/09 Edition
(PC)

Driving Test Success ALL TESTS 2008/09 Interactive DVD