Turns, lanes, passing and parking
To parallel park, you pull up alongside the vehicle parked in front of the empty space. About how much room should you leave between the two vehicles?
- About two feet. Correct answer
- About 18 inches.
- About three feet.
Why
The handbook's figure for that side gap is about two feet. Stop when your rear bumper lines up with the front of the space, keep your signal on, check your blind spots, then back in at roughly a 45-degree angle. The other two numbers come from the same maneuver but measure different things. Three feet is the minimum by which the space should be longer than your vehicle. Eighteen inches is about the curb: once your rear wheel is 18 inches or less from it, you begin steering away from it, and once parked your vehicle should be within 18 inches of the curb.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, June 2025 edition. The correct answer is About two feet.
The rule behind this one
Turns, lanes, passing and parking in California goes through the whole topic, with the page of the California Driver's Handbook behind every rule.
More on turns, lanes, passing and parking
- You park on a hill on a road that has no curb. Which way should you turn your front wheels?
- What are you allowed to do at a curb painted white?
- Your car breaks down and you have to stop on a freeway. What does the handbook tell you to do while you wait for help?
- You are towing a trailer on a highway with four lanes in your direction and no lane marked for slower vehicles. Which lanes may you use?