It seems everyone has a horror story about the terrible display of parking they witnessed, or the strange angle of the parked car they passed in the street.

Strangely, though, we have no stories admitting to our own inability to park at the designated 45 degrees.

But drive down any street in the central business district and you will struggle to find a single car parked at 45 degrees. Most are about 60 degrees – many are closer to 90.

In fact, if ever a car does park at 45 degrees it looks horribly out of place and simply creates a battle for the driver when they try to leave.

And that’s why the traffic committee wants to trial line marking on CBD streets to help people park at 45 degrees.

It’s also why so many people are convinced the trial will be a failure.

After years of a “near enough is good enough” attitude, CBD drivers will be expected to take a good, hard look at their parking habits. And most of us will find that difficult.

What will really ignite the powderkeg, though, will be if council rangers start fining drivers who don’t park between the new lines.

Councillor Bobby Bourke suggested this whole trial could be a cynical revenue-raising exercise and, if he’s proved right, council had better brace for a flood of complaints.

The issue with fining people is that rangers will not be able to prove which driver was the first to park outside the lines.

And once one car parks outside the lines or at the wrong angle, it’s very difficult for the cars to come after it to correct the problem.

So, by all means, have a trial and see how it goes. Maybe Bathurst drivers will surprise us all and prove we do know what 45 degrees looks like, after all.

More likely, though, is that we will all continue parking how we always have.

If it ain’t broke, why bother trying to fix it?