Parallel Parking: A Dying Art

Some people dread parallel parking. Others love it. A lot.

Peter Cheney is one of the latter. He's the car columnist for the Globe and Mail, and feels parallel parking is becoming a lost art.

Newer cars have automated parallel parking systems, letting drivers skip the complicated act of manually sliding into a tight squeeze. The state of Maryland is dropping parallel parking from their driving test, to the relief of many learners.

But Cheney believes, as cars become more automated, we lose something special, something nearly indescribable. The bond between human and machine, an intimate understanding of physics and geometry, and the simple satisfaction of accomplishing a difficult task.

In this interview, Peter Cheney gives his view of the dying art of parallel parking, and tells us of the most satisfying parallel park of his life. 

I remember once in Europe, pulling in to this spot with a huge line of traffic behind me in my Fiat 600, with my girlfriend. And I just backed in, full speed, BANG, I was there. I didn't have to juggle the car. I was there. It was like a perfect park. And I never forgot that feeling.- Peter Cheney, Columnist for the Globe and Mail

Click "listen" above for more of Peter's philosophical take on the lost art of parallel parking.