A formula for perfect parking has been devised by a London Mathematician and GM subsidiary Vauxhall Motors.
Sadly, the formula is even more mysterious than the enigma of why women can’t park or why men are physically incapable of asking directions. Professor Simon Blackburn, from the University of London’s Royal Holloway College, came up with the formula to make even the trickiest reverse parallel parking situations a breeze.
The formula resulted from a survey which showed 57 per cent lacked confidence in their parking ability and 32 per cent would drive further from their destination or to a more expensive car park to avoid a tricky parking move.
The least confident parkers were from the East of England, while the most confident were the Welsh, particularly those from Maentwrog.
Professor Blackburn told the Daily Telegraph: “Parking the car is something that most of us do on a daily basis and we all get a little frustrated with it sometimes. This was the perfect opportunity to show how we can apply mathematics to understanding something that we all share.
“The formula and our advice can help people understand what good parallel parking involves. If you understand the angles and the dimensions of your own car then you can work out how to park in a nice, confident way. Everyone has had the experience of ignoring a space because you’re not sure if you can fit in or not. This formula solves that problem.”
The formula uses the radius of the car’s turning circle and its wheelbase. Then, using the length of the car’s hood and the width of an adjacent car the formula can tell exactly how big a space needs to be for your car to fit. You do, however, need to carry a tape measure with you at all times to check these parameters.
Another, possibly somewhat radical, alternative is to learn how to drive.
