Why do people find reversing around the corner so hard?

I do the same, but my instructor says I rely on the mirror too much and should be able to do it by judgement via the windows without using the mirrors at all. To be honest I was taught to do it without using the side mirrors, but could could only do it 50/50 until I twigged how useful they were.

More reasons:
1. Reverse around a corner is different for every corner. Variants in gradients aren't a big difference, but enough to throw someone off if they're nervous. In comparison, bay parking, parallel parking and turn in the road are pretty much exactly the same in turns of timing and amount of steering no matter the situation.

2. Reversing round a corner can be nerve wracking on busy streets. With parallel parking you're out of everyone's way pretty much immediately. With turn in the road you need enough space to do the first turn, then people usually stop and there's no pressure. With reversing around a corner you can get right to the point of straightening up, but if someone's coming up behind then you HAVE to pull forward and start all over again. On one practise I had on lessons I had to repeat a reverse around a corner 5 times because of that.

3. You're at risk of hitting the curb at pretty much any point. It's very easy to be absolutely fine for almost all the corner then hit the curb at the last minute due to oversteering. Sharper corners are more forgiving though. Going slow enough that you can make your observations without losing judgement of where the curb is requires much more skill than any of the other manoeuvres IMO.


So lots of reasons really. I think it just generally requires more of everything compared to the other manoeuvres: observations and judgement in particular.

No you don't You just have to stop until they're out of the way.

Got to ask this ....

Is it males or females that are having the most issues with this?

It's not hard, just utterly pointless and a maneuver you will never, ever use.

If someone comes behind you on the road you begin on , stop and let them pass.

If someone comes behind you on the road you're turning into, pull forward again since you're blocking the junction and there's no way they can approach the junction safely if you stop. It may be possible to get away with stopping if the other car wants to turn right and you're not far enough round to block the lane, but it's safer to pull forward since your car may be blocking their view.

The manoeuvre isn't finished until you've reversed a safe distance away from the corner, so if you've finished the corner but aren't quite at the safe distance and someone approaches behind, then it may still be necessary to pull forward.

That's what I've been taught anyway

I find it difficult because my instructor doesn't allow me to use the side mirrors as we should be looking out of the back whenever we're reversing. She lets me glance at it but when I started with her I used to stare at it.

That's really my only sticking point in my lessons and I'm a bit nervous about it because my test is on 26th july!

Your instructor is not very intelligent. Whenever doing anything in a car, the more you know about your surroundings, the safer you will be.

Ideally, you should alternate side mirrors and the rear window during the maneouver to make sure that you dont ride the curb or run into the car behind you. After a while, though, you get used to the size of the car and you get a sixth sense about where the wheels are and how much space there is behind you. Give it a month of solid city driving and your spacial awareness will be good enough that you'll be able to reverse it perfectly in a few seconds.

noo maybe i didn't explain myself correctly, she does allow me to look at the side mirrors but when I started my lessons I used to depend on those and not even look in the back mirror so she's teaching me to not rely on the side mirrors.

i hope i do get used to the size of the car because whenever i'm practising parallel parking in my mum's car i'm always terrified to reverse back while straightening up because the car behind always looks closer than it is!