How To Master Parallel Parking Using Your Backup Camera’s Colored Lines

If you drive a car built since 2018, a rearview camera came standard, but they actually started popping up as options on cars more than a decade before that. And while many early examples were difficult to use due to their low-resolution displays, these days, they’re much sharper and show a clear picture of what’s behind you (well, mostly). Considering how large cars have gotten and how much worse their outward visibility is, that’s definitely a good thing. Not only can you reverse your car more safely, you can also parallel parking easier, as well.

Of course, you don’t actually need a backup camera to parallel park. People did it for decades without cameras, and it isn’t like four wheels and a steering wheel work any differently now that all cars come with cameras. The main difference is that, as previously mentioned, cars are larger and harder to see out of these days, which means it can definitely be more challenging than parallel parking, say, a first-generation Subaru Forester. And even if you’re already a pro, it never hurts to have a better idea of exactly where your rear bumper ends, at least if your idea of parallel parking doesn’t involve bumping another car out of the way. 

If you want to use your backup camera to parallel park more effectively, you’ll want to line your car up exactly like you normally would, typically about a foot away from the car next to you and roughly mirror-to-mirror. Turn your steering wheel like normal, as well, and start backing up. Most rearview cameras show two different colored boxes, one that stays static and a second, dynamic one that moves around based on how you turn the wheel. Both can be helpful, but while parallel parking, you want to mainly depend on the dynamic one. 

Once the corner created by the middle line inside that colored box touches the sidewalk, it’s time to turn your steering wheel the other direction and continue reversing until your car is as straight as the space allows. Instead of guessing how much room you have and potentially making it harder on yourself than necessary, you can use the red line that marks the back of your car to get a much better idea of how close you are to the car behind you. 

At that point, it’s time to pull forward and make any adjustments to the position of your car, but you should be good to go. In some cars, you may even have a front-facing camera that can also give you a better idea of how much space remains ahead of you, too. Those dynamic lines can then be used to check to make sure your wheels are straight, or if you’re parking on a hill, turned in the proper direction. And if your car has a surround-view camera system, that can be even more helpful, since you can use it to check to make sure there’s enough space for your car before you even start trying to park.