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Tired of being stuck in a queue for minutes, just to find a free parking spot? Here’s how you can beat the competition and stay a few steps ahead in the game. Read our parking hacks to stay safe and more importantly, stay responsible.

1. Reverse park to quickly get-away

One of the parking hacks you need to know is reverse parking. When driving down to crowded events like festivals, concerts, or sports matches, you may often find yourself getting stuck in traffic while trying to exit the premises. In times like these, park in reverse.

For starters, halt two spots before an empty parking space. Check for any walking passer-by or oncoming cars. Once the coast is clear, slowly turn your wheel to back up into the empty spot. Keep turning till your car is parallel to the lines of the parking spot in your side mirror. Now straighten your car and park safely. This will help avoid the struggle of getting your car out of your parking spot in a limited space. You’ll save time while leaving and make an effortless exit.

2. Parallel park like a pro

While parallel parking helps save parking space, most drivers start sweating at the thought of it. However, with these simple tips, you have nothing to fear. When trying to parallel park, firstly, line your car two feet ahead of the car in front of the spot you’re after. Next, cut your wheels all the way to the right and start backing slowly. Keep going till you see the license plate of the car behind you in the side mirror.

Now, simply straighten your wheel and back up until your car is at the back of the first car. Finally, stop the car and straighten your wheels to finish parking.

3. Hit the slopes

When you come across an empty parking space on a slope, you may hesitate or even skip the spot. Parking on a sloped spot can be tricky, but it is one of the better parking hacks as not many people opt for this and can get you easy access to a parking space. When parallel parking on an incline next to a curb, turn your steering wheel away from it to prevent the risk of accidents.

If anything, your car will merely roll backward toward the curb and not into the oncoming traffic. When parking downhill, turn your steering wheel in the opposite direction, towards the curb. However, if there is no curb when parking on a slope, turn your wheel to the right.

4. Be a sunflower when it’s cold

This parking hack is for people living in particularly cold or snowy regions. In snowy regions, frost is always a troublesome issue. Park facing east and allow the sun rays to hit your windshield and de-frost them, first thing in the morning. This will cut back on the amount of scraping you usually have to do every morning. Another helpful tip for the winter is to dab a little alcohol-based hand sanitizer to free any of the car doors or locks that freeze over and get jammed.

5. Park smart with apps

Even after learning to drive and park like a pro, you may often find yourself getting frustrated at the lack of a parking space. To tackle this issue, all you need to do is download a smart parking app. The concept of smart parking is a concoction of predictive software, ultrasonic sensor systems, and real-time data collection and algorithms.

Simply enter your destination on the app and it will relay real-time information about the availability of empty spaces in parking lots near your desired location. This will help combat the issue of aimless wandering in an attempt to find a parking spot and in turn, curb the city’s traffic woes.

In the end, the digitized, smart world of parking is the only way to revolutionize and transform our vehicular and traffic landscape. It is the start of an interconnected transportation system, built on a well-planned, solid infrastructure to efficiently manage urban mobility and solve the woes of parking.