TO wait or not to wait?
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That was the question the Advocate put to Bathurst road safety expert Matt Irvine at the prompting of a reader.
The reader said local motorists seemed to be confused about the correct procedure when pulling up and preparing to reverse into a parking spot.
“I thought drivers were ignorant to others around, but I now understand they fully believe the parking car has right of way,” the reader said.
Mr Irvine, director of Calare Academy of Road Safety, said the rule was simple: “When you pull up to park, you are supposed to wait for the cars behind to pass.”
”But if the road is clear and you commence parking, and then other traffic comes along, they are expected to wait for you,” he said.
That had always been the rule, Mr Irvine said, but that rule was complicated in local streets such as Howick and William where fences and median strips have been built in the centre of the road.
“It's very difficult, when you've got street beautification measures, to let people pass you,” he said. “Outside the post office, for example, if you don't get your park done, no one can go past you.”
In those circumstances, he said, the geometry of the street means parking drivers just have to “get it done”, rather than wait, but he said the drivers in those streets would have to expect to find people parking.
“So be patient,” he said.
Mr Irvine said motorists should also remember that it is not legal to “pull up and block traffic while waiting for someone to leave a spot”.
“The spot has to be waiting for you,” he said.
He said people blocking traffic while trying to claim a spot that is not yet vacant were more of a problem than people reverse parking into the flow of traffic, but said a sense of perspective should always be maintained in terms of these concerns.
“As frustrating as parking problems can be, we're better off putting our energy into what we know causes serious harm to people,” he said.
Mr Irvine also reminded motorists preparing to reverse park to check their blind spot because the “front right-hand corner of the car will swing out”.