Let App WinIt fight your ticket.

If you’re from a place like Miami and you never leave the state, there’s pretty much no chance you’ll ever have to learn how to park on a hill. On the other hand, if you live in San Francisco, parking on a hill is one of the first things you’ll ever learn about driving. But no matter where you live, if you ever intend to drive on vacation, you might want to consider learning this important skill.

How to Parallel Park on a Hill

A large chunk of hillside parking is parallel to the road, which brings us to the infamous task of parallel parking. In fact, according to a recent study, only 28% of all drivers say that they’re any good at parallel parking. Granted, that number is much, much higher in places like New York City, Los Angeles, and D.C. because drivers in those cities often hone their skills in Mad-Max-style competition over the scarcest resource known to man: street parking.

Generally speaking, the steeper the hill, the less likely you are to see perpendicular parking spaces along it. That’s because of a bit of complicated math and engineering having to do with vehicles and their centers of gravity, but suffice to say that steeper hills make for increased odds of flipping a perpendicularly parked vehicle. Hence why so much hillside parking is parallel.

But what exactly is it that makes parallel parking so difficult? For most people, parallel parking is difficult because they’ve just never really had to do it. Maybe they live in a rural area with plenty of parking lots. On the bright side, that means that—like any skill—all it takes is practice. Practice parallel parking in a safe place and, with a little dedication and effort, you’ll be parallel parking like a pro in no time.

Step 1: Parallel Park As Regular

Like breaking a bad habit, the first step is the hardest step. We’ve already spent some time talking about how hard it is to parallel park. Now let’s talk about the actual parallel parking process.

Flawless parallel parking starts with finding a good spot. Since vehicles can sometimes roll down hills when starting or stopping them, the best spots will enable you to leave one full car length of space between your vehicle and other vehicles or obstacles.

After you’ve found the ideal parking spot, drive just a little bit past it. One car length should do the trick. In other words, line your rear bumper up with the frontmost border of the parking space. If you’re parking in between two vehicles, pull up next to the vehicle in front of the spot.

Next, check your rearview mirror and wait until the coast is clear. Then back up until the middle of your vehicle is lined up with the frontmost border of the parking space. The middle of your vehicle can be hard to estimate visually from inside of it, but a general rule of thumb for four-door sedans is that the driver’s seat’s backrest is just about the middle of the car.

Now, turn your steering wheel sharply in the direction of the curb, away from oncoming traffic. Continue backing up slowly while turning in this manner until both headlights of the vehicle behind you appear in the driver-side mirror. This should be about a 45-degree angle.

Cut the wheel in the opposite direction and continue slowly backing up into the parking space. Be careful not to collide with the vehicle in the spot behind yours. Once you’ve gone as far back as you can go, turn the wheel back in the other direction and straighten yourself out.

Once you’ve straightened your vehicle between the two other parking spaces, move back or forward as needed to really settle into the middle of your space. All that’s left to do now is double check that your vehicle is entirely in the spot, not hanging over a second spot or the sidewalk, and not blocking any restricted zones (like a fire hydrant or crosswalk). If you’re all good, move on to the next step.

Step 2: Turn Your Wheels Toward the Curb

Angle your wheels toward the curb ensures that your vehicle isn’t going anywhere, even if your brakes fail. To better understand how this works, we’ll look at two scenarios: one where you park and angle your wheels toward the curb and one where you park and angle your wheels forward like you would on flat ground.

Wheels Toward the Curb

For this scenario, you’ve just finished step one. You turn your steering wheel all the way in the direction of the curb. Right as you’re about to move on to step number three, your brakes fail and your vehicle starts to roll. Since the wheels are angled toward the curb, the vehicle begins to roll in that direction until the curb hits your wheel and brings your vehicle to a stop.

Wheels Forward or Away from the Curb

For this scenario too, you’ve just finished step one. You turn your steering wheel so that your wheels are facing perfectly straight. Right as you’re about to move on to step number three, your brakes fail and your vehicle starts to roll. Since the wheels are angled forward, the vehicle begins to roll in that direction. It continues to roll, picking up more and more speed, until it collides with the vehicle in front of it, causing a painful and costly accident.

Step 3: Roll the Car Into the Curb

When you’re ready, put your vehicle in neutral and remove your foot from the brake. Let the vehicle roll ever so slowly until you feel the bump! of the wheels tapping the curb. Then put the vehicle back into park and remove your foot from the brake.

This step is to ensure that your vehicle has as little room to accelerate as possible, should the brakes fail as mentioned in step two. If there is only a centimeter or two between the tire and the curb when the brakes fail, the vehicle will likely not pick up anywhere near enough speed to jump it.

However, if there is a great deal of space between the wheel and the curb, you could be in serious trouble—even if you turned your wheels like you were supposed to. That’s because, as gravity pulls on the vehicle and it moves further, it gets faster. The more space to move, the faster it will be going when it finally hits the curb. And, if it hits the curb fast enough, it’s likely to jump it, potentially rolling into somebody’s driveway, down the sidewalk, etc.

Step 4: Use the Emergency Brake

Last but not least, engage the emergency brake. Like the name of the part suggests, emergency brakes are for use in braking emergencies—that is, when your brakes fail.

Emergency brakes are typically manual braking systems that are separate but similar to your electronic brakes. They’re specifically designed to function in even the worst situations, serving as a backup braking system when your primary braking system fails.

Going back to what we talked about in steps two and three, the emergency brake can stop your vehicle from sliding out of the parking spot and damaging itself or others. Forgetting to engage the emergency brake when parallel parking on a hill can result in the vehicle rolling away if the primary braking system fails.