PORTLAND, Ore. — A viewer recently wrote to KGW with a question about back-in parking, where drivers pull their cars past a parking stall and then back up into it, instead of turning as they approach it and driving straight in:
Been seeing people all around Oregon backing into parking stalls at businesses. I thought it was illegal.
It turns out back-in parking is a surprisingly contentious topic, spawning heated arguments on social media and quite a few think pieces, some in support and others staunchly opposed. There have also been news stories about drivers running afoul of local back-in parking restrictions in some cities.
So what about in Oregon — is it legal, or not?
THE QUESTION
Is back-in parking legal in Oregon?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, back-in parking is legal in Oregon, although individual parking lot operators can set their own restrictions. The rules are also different for angled and parallel parking.
WHAT WE FOUND
The Oregon DMV's Parent Guide to Teen Driving says it's up to drivers to decide which way to face when parking; it includes instructions for pulling into parking spaces both forward and backward, and it even encourages new drivers to consider backing in, because it sets up clearer views when exiting and avoids the need to back up into traffic.
KGW reached out to the Oregon Department of Transportation, and a spokesperson confirmed that drivers are generally free to park their cars facing in either direction — but individual parking lot operators are allowed to set more specific or restrictive rules.
And there's another caveat: the instructions in the teen driving guide are specifically about perpendicular parking, where the parking space is at a 90-degree angle to the direction of traffic. The rules for parallel and angled parking are different.
Parallel parking is simple: drivers can pull in forwards or backwards, but the car can only face one way. Oregon law and many local cities all specify that vehicles in parallel parking spaces must always face the same direction as traffic in the adjacent lane.
Angled parking is a more complicated, because the rules can depend on how the spaces are angled. The Oregon Driver Manual includes a section on angled parking that states "Signs may be posted to indicate when a parking area is reverse angle or back-in only."
It's more common for angled spaces to be pointed toward oncoming traffic, and in those cases they might be enforced as front-in only. Portland, for example, requires that cars in angled parking spaces face in the same direction as traffic, just like in parallel parking spots — which for angled parking would mean front-in only.
But some cities have experimented with reverse angled parking, where the spaces are pointed away from oncoming traffic — and in those cases, the spaces tend to only allow back-in parking. West Linn gave back-in angled parking a shot a few years ago, according to the West Linn Tidings, but reversed course after public backlash.
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