Parking on Hills

The trick to parking on a hill is to turn your front wheels so that if the vehicle rolls, it will roll into the curb and stop. If there is no curb, the vehicle will roll off the road, not into the path of other vehicles or obstruct the road. This will prevent the vehicle from building momentum and will stop it from entering the street. The emergency brake should be applied whenever parking on a slope.

Can you correctly guess which way the car is on the hill in both the figures below?

Figure 1

Figure 2

For figure 1, if you guessed uphill. You are correct.

For figure 2, if you guessed downhill. You are correct.

When parking facing uphill with a curb, its best you turn your front tires away from the curb or to the left and engage the parking brake. You want the back of your front tire to make contact with the curb within a few inches of rolling to "avoid jumping" over the curb if it rolls far enough to build up enough speed. See in inset image below.

When parking uphill without a curb, if you guessed toward the curb. You are correct.

When parking up a hill without curbing, turn your front tires towards the edge of the road or to the right and engage the parking brake. You want your car to roll off the road to avoid striking passing vehicles or possibly obstructing the road.

Electronic activated parking brake.

Manual/hand activated parking brake.

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