Parking at the curb

When parking at the curb, come in slow and give yourself plenty of room so you don't have to turn you wheels sharp sharp.

Turning too sharp or coming in at much more than 5 mph risks bumping  and scraping and damaging you tire and cars alignment.

Also when curb parking avoid parking by mail boxes, trees, poles or other objects close to the edge of the curb that would cause your mirror to scrape them and make it difficult to open the curbside door.

In the picture to the left below, you can see, from the drivers side view, the curb is to the right of one of the screws in the windshield wiper. this puts it a little left of center of the hood for me.

When I see the curb in this position I know my vehicle is about a foot away  as in the picture on the right.

The further right you see the curb out your windshield, the further away you are.

The further left you see it, the closer you are .

Parking in front of the curb

Have you ever wondered how to know you won't hit or scrape the edge in front when perpendicular parking?

The answer is in looking at the curb in front and to the side.

Notice in the picture below the front of the car is hanging over the edge to the point of pressing against the shrubs. You would want to avoid pressing against anything  like this.

Being this close  also causes your license plate and the bottom of the bumper to scrape  which you don't want to do.

Looking at the  pictures above, you can see the curb is well in front of the mirror.
This lets you know you are so close  your bumper will hang over even if your tires haven't bumped yet.

Below is a picture of where you want your front bumper when parking in front of a curb, just slightly before it.

In the pictures above you can see the curb is under, maybe slightly behind the mirror. This lets you know you are inside the stall without being too close.

The further behind the mirror you see the curb, the further you are from it in front.

Be careful the back end of your car does not hang out of the stall.