Do you back into your driveway?

I wanted to get some opinions about my behavior. I recently
moved into a house (I'm house-sitting for a few years) and
I have never had my own driveway before this move. I find
myself always backing into the driveway now when I park, so when
it's time for me to go anywhere, I can pull out forward, and
I won't have to worry about backing into a small child or
another vehicle.

I have noticed that most others always pull forward into their
driveways, in fact one neighbor did actually ask me if I
"was planning to go to a fire" .... in a friendly way.
Does anyone else back in to the driveway .... or am I
unusual?

Kevin Spencer

In article >,
Kevin Spencer > wrote:

> I wanted to get some opinions about my behavior. I recently
> moved into a house (I'm house-sitting for a few years) and
> I have never had my own driveway before this move. I find
> myself always backing into the driveway now when I park, so when
> it's time for me to go anywhere, I can pull out forward, and
> I won't have to worry about backing into a small child or
> another vehicle.
>
> I have noticed that most others always pull forward into their
> driveways, in fact one neighbor did actually ask me if I
> "was planning to go to a fire" .... in a friendly way.
> Does anyone else back in to the driveway .... or am I
> unusual?
>
> Kevin Spencer

I always back in - that way the door to the house is on the driver's
side :-)

Ivan

In article >,
Ivan > wrote:

> I always back in - that way the door to the house is on the driver's
> side :-)

You've just pinpointed why I normally don't back in usually, although I
never really thought about it other than it's more of a PITA to back in.
My driveway's on the opposite side of the house (compared to yours in
relation to your house).

But if I have my parents' mini-van on loan, I back in for easier
loading. ;-)

Kendall

--
Kendall P. Bullen http://www.his.com/~kendall/
kendall@---^^^^^^^

Never e-mail me copies of Usenet postings, please.
I do read the groups to which I post!

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005, Kevin Spencer wrote:

> I wanted to get some opinions about my behavior. I recently moved into a
> house (I'm house-sitting for a few years) and I have never had my own
> driveway before this move. I find myself always backing into the
> driveway now when I park, so when it's time for me to go anywhere, I can
> pull out forward, and I won't have to worry about backing into a small
> child or another vehicle.

Yours is a smarter and safer way to use a home driveway than the more
common method of nosing in and backing out, and for exactly the reason you
state.

Daniel J. Stern wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Jul 2005, Kevin Spencer wrote:
>
> > I wanted to get some opinions about my behavior. I recently moved into a
> > house (I'm house-sitting for a few years) and I have never had my own
> > driveway before this move. I find myself always backing into the
> > driveway now when I park, so when it's time for me to go anywhere, I can
> > pull out forward, and I won't have to worry about backing into a small
> > child or another vehicle.
>
> Yours is a smarter and safer way to use a home driveway than the more
> common method of nosing in and backing out, and for exactly the reason you
> state.

Why doesn't he have to worry about backing into a child when parking
the car?

In article . com>, "Larry Bud" > wrote:
>
>Why doesn't he have to worry about backing into a child when parking
>the car?

Perhaps neither he nor his neighbors have children...

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

Doug Miller wrote:
> In article . com>, "Larry Bud" > wrote:
> >
> >Why doesn't he have to worry about backing into a child when parking
> >the car?
>
> Perhaps neither he nor his neighbors have children...

Then the original argument of worrying about backing into a child when
pulling out doesn't apply either.

On 13 Jul 2005 16:35:36 -0700, "Larry Bud" >
wrote:

>
>
>Daniel J. Stern wrote:
>> On Wed, 13 Jul 2005, Kevin Spencer wrote:
>>
>> > I wanted to get some opinions about my behavior. I recently moved into a
>> > house (I'm house-sitting for a few years) and I have never had my own
>> > driveway before this move. I find myself always backing into the
>> > driveway now when I park, so when it's time for me to go anywhere, I can
>> > pull out forward, and I won't have to worry about backing into a small
>> > child or another vehicle.
>>
>> Yours is a smarter and safer way to use a home driveway than the more
>> common method of nosing in and backing out, and for exactly the reason you
>> state.
>
>Why doesn't he have to worry about backing into a child when parking
>the car?

Maybe because when you pull up, you can look out the window.

Daniel J. Stern wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Jul 2005, Kevin Spencer wrote:
>
>
>>I wanted to get some opinions about my behavior. I recently moved into a
>>house (I'm house-sitting for a few years) and I have never had my own
>>driveway before this move. I find myself always backing into the
>>driveway now when I park, so when it's time for me to go anywhere, I can
>>pull out forward, and I won't have to worry about backing into a small
>>child or another vehicle.
>
>
> Yours is a smarter and safer way to use a home driveway than the more
> common method of nosing in and backing out, and for exactly the reason you
> state.
>

Many people would be surprised to know that some cities have ordinances
prohibiting backing a car out of a driveway onto a major thoroughfare.
People who live on busy main streets will quite often have circle drives
or turn-around areas that they can pull into and back up to the house
just enough to get facing forward to exit the driveway.

In article >, Kevin Spencer says...
>
>I wanted to get some opinions about my behavior. I recently
>moved into a house (I'm house-sitting for a few years) and
>I have never had my own driveway before this move. I find
>myself always backing into the driveway now when I park, so when
>it's time for me to go anywhere, I can pull out forward, and
>I won't have to worry about backing into a small child or
>another vehicle.
>
>I have noticed that most others always pull forward into their
>driveways, in fact one neighbor did actually ask me if I
>"was planning to go to a fire" .... in a friendly way.
>Does anyone else back in to the driveway .... or am I
>unusual?
>
>Kevin Spencer

It's unusual. In fact, it's something I only did when I was part of an on-pager
emergency crew, so what your neighbor said is what would occur to me.

So, let me ask you - ya pays now or ya pays later, right? Either way, there's a
possibility of backing into something.. when backing in, or backing out! So why
do you prefer to do the manuever backing in??

For one thing, you can wait in your driveway for the traffic to clear before
backing out. If you back *in*, there's the change the guy behind you will have
to wait, or you'll need to pull over to let him past, then do the back-in
maneuver. For another thing, backing out into the street takes a little less
care than lining up to back into most driveways, since driveways are narrower
than streets.

Y'know what - get a circular driveway!

Cheers,
Banty