How close to the corner do you park?

Parked around the corner 1 When I’m teaching new students and licensed drivers at Young Drivers of Canada, I also have to teach them parking skills. Part of that skill of parking also means where they should park; not just how to park. Do you always park in safe places?

In most jurisdictions, you must park at least 20 feet or 6 metres from the corner; but more space is better. This will allow enough room for drivers to make turns and for drivers to position themselves to share the road with you. The other part of this is that it can protect your vehicle from possible damage.

A national company sends their incident reports involving vehicles to me and I analyze what they should have done differently. Roughly 20% of those incidents are from parking errors and some of those are because the driver parked too close to the intersection.

The photo here is of a driver who parked a bit too close to the corner and a bus came around the corner and hit the corner of the SUV causing enough damage to send the vehicle off to the repair shop. Was the driver of the parked SUV just thinking that they could park close the house they wanted to go to, or were they thinking at all about the safety of their position? A better position would have been further up the road.

The next time you have to park your vehicle on the street, think about how close you should park to the corner, not just because of laws, but for the safety of your vehicle.