Perfect Parking Formula fills the gap

London, April 18 -- A mathematical formula (1) released today by esure - the Internet car insurer - in association with Surrey University sets out the requirements for perfect parallel parking.

esure estimates that £151m of bumps and scrapes are caused each year by misjudged parking manoeuvres, and other low-speed manoeuvres each year.

The need for a better national understanding of 'what it takes to parallel park' is underlined by the fact that a drive into town or city centres most days will now involve a tight parallel park. This is a knock-on effect of the annual increase in the number of cars on the road while the availability of on-street town and city centre parking spaces remains almost static.

esure is also calling for parallel parking to be a compulsory part of every driving test. Currently, there is only a 50% chance it will be tested.

Colin Batabyal, technical director at esure, said:

"We have to learn to park better as a nation. Everyone loves to park on the road if they can, so millions of drivers a day are trying to squeeze into tight spaces and many have little idea of what constitutes a good parallel park."

"esure believes that every driver being tested should have to demonstrate that they can safely parallel park their car into a relatively small space. Our research indicates £151m of parking and low-speed claims each year, but that doesn't take into account the full extent of scrape-and-runs committed by poor parkers."

The parking formula was devised by Dr Rebecca Hoyle of Surrey University. It describes the minimum requirements for being able to park and the conditions for a perfect S-shaped parking manoeuvre.

The formula looks daunting but can be broken down into a few simple steps.

- Pick a gap that is a minimum of 150% the length of your car.

- Reverse to the point where your car is side-by-side with the other vehicle. (If both cars are average size, line up the steering wheels of both cars). Turn your wheel to left lock keeping the car moving slowly.

- When the car reaches a 45 degree angle (the rate it reaches this angle may depend on your turning circle) turn the steering wheel to full right lock.

- As the front or your vehicle approaches the kerb, straighten the wheel (by turning it left). If you turn too late, you will hit the kerb. If you turn too early, you will park too far away from the kerb.

- Move forward to a parallel position, equal distance between vehicles.

Editors notes:

(1) A full description of the parking formula including all the technical and variable definitions is available at http://www.gap3.com/esureformula

An image of the parking formula is available to the media free of charge at http://www.newscast.co.uk/ (+44 207 608 1000)

Adrian Webb Head of Communications, esure Over Easter on mobile: +44 (0) 771 862 8723 Available for any press and broadcast interviews