How to be a perfect parker

by Robin Yapp

For millions of drivers,it is a manoeuvre that can be the road to ruin. You spot a convenient parking space between two stationary vehicles at the roadside - but will you be able to reverse into it? Many of us invariably end up shunting back and forth, seething with frustration, as we try in vain to edge our way in. Meanwhile, a queue of traffic is building up behind us - and horns are starting to honk. Alternatively,we swing hopefully into the space - and bash other cars.
But now a mathematics expert clalins to have come up with the perfect formula which will ensure success every time for the parallel parker. For algebraic duffers, Dr Rebecca Hoyle's equation is just a bewildering array of figures, letters, brackets and plus signs (see graphic).
But luckily for the man or woman at the wheel, it can be reduced to five simple steps:

• 1. Pick a parking gap that is a minimum of one and a half times the length of your car.
• 2. Reverse to the point where the rear of your car is level with the rear of the parked car - you can line up the steering wheels if both cars are the same size. Then turn your wheel to the left until it locks, keeping your car moving slowly all the time.
• 3. When your car reaches a 45-degree angle to the kerb, turn your steering wheel all the way back, to full right lock.
• 4. When the front of your vehicle reaches about 15in from the kerb, straighten the wheel,by turning it left so that you avoid hittmg the kerb.
• 5. Move forward to a point where there is an equal distance beteween your car and those ahead and behind.Your perfect park is now complete.
  

Dr Hoyle, a lecturer in mathematics at Surrey University, Guildford, was commissioned to come up with the formula by Internet car insurer esure. The firm estimates that £l5l million of damage is caused to vehicles each year by misjudged parking manoeuvres and is calling for parking to be madea part of the driving test. Colin Batabyal,technical director at esure,said: "We haveto 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 what constitutes a good parallel park."
Last  year, a study funded by Diamond insurance found that women drivers are 23 per cent more likely than men to hit a stationary car. This is apparently because men are better at spatial awareness tasks. Women were also twice as likely men to have an accident in a car park and 15 per cent more likely to reverse into another vehicle. But the insurers also found that men are more dangerous drivers with repair bills averaging £2,156 compared to £1,790 for women.

Lazy option is best when waiting for the bus 23 January 2008 NewScientist.com news service

Ever lose patience waiting for a bus and decided to walk instead? Next time, stick around, it's nearly always the best strategy. Scott Kominers, a mathematician at Harvard University, and his colleagues derived a formula for the optimal time that you should wait for a tardy bus at each stop en route before giving up and walking on. "Many mathematicians probably ponder this on their way to work, but never get round to working it out," he says. The team found that the solution was surprisingly simple. When both options seem reasonably attractive, the formula advises you to choose the "lazy" option: wait at the first stop, no matter how frustrating (www.arxiv.org/abs/0801.0297). The formula does break down in extreme cases, Kominers says, when the time interval between buses is longer than an hour, for example, and your destination is only a kilometre away. If you do choose to walk, you should make your decision before you start waiting, he says. You will still reach your destination later than the bus you'd have caught, but it will be much less frustrating than waiting for a while and then watching the bus shoot by. "It certainly has changed the way I travel," Kominers says.
From issue 2640 of New Scientist magazine, 23 January 2008, page 18