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 >, 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

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.

"Kevin Spencer" > wrote in message
...

> Does anyone else back in to the driveway .... or am I
> unusual?

This is usual in England although no rule mandates it.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 16:18:24 -0400, Kevin Spencer
> wrote:

>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?

No, Kevin, you're special and sensible. SOMETIMES I'm organized
enough to back into my driveway, but not usually.

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:01:46 GMT, KLS > graced this
newsgroup with:

>On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 16:18:24 -0400, Kevin Spencer
> wrote:
>
>>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?
>
>No, Kevin, you're special and sensible. SOMETIMES I'm organized
>enough to back into my driveway, but not usually.


the ones that crack me up are the ones that back into a parking slot
at Costo and then can open their trunk to load all their crap in. LOL

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:18:46 -0400, "
> graced this newsgroup with:

>On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:01:46 GMT, KLS > graced this
>newsgroup with:
>
>>On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 16:18:24 -0400, Kevin Spencer
> wrote:
>>
>>>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?
>>
>>No, Kevin, you're special and sensible. SOMETIMES I'm organized
>>enough to back into my driveway, but not usually.
>
>
>the ones that crack me up are the ones that back into a parking slot
>at Costo and then can open their trunk to load all their crap in. LOL
>


yeesh...let's try this again...

the ones that crack me up are those that back into a parking slot
at Costco and then can't open their trunk to load all their crap in.
LOL

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?

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?

Just unusually sensible. Chances are that you're likely to be in
slightly more of a hurry when leaving, so it makes sense to have the car
'pointing the right way'.

Also you're likely to be slightly less alert first thing in the morning
so it's a bit safer.

Graham