There are cities that still have laws on the books that state you cannot back out of your driveway. Obviously not enforced but the reasoning is there. At the grocery store, I don't back in because it becomes a pain in the ass to get to your trunk, everywhere else, yeah I back in. It's safer.

I have never hit anything when backing in or driving out forward. I have hit 4 vehicles while backing out. It may be an attention thing, no idea. It is better for my wallet to back in

I started when I had a Smart Car, which made backing in really easy. The front wheels are almost in the same place as the back wheels, so the car almost rotates. It's a shame they weren't more popular.

I can do both just as easily. It really depends on if I’m going to be using the trunk or not. Believe it or not it’s actually illegal to back in some states. Cops are supposed to be able to see your license plate at a glance.

I have time backing in slowly. But when it's time for me to rush out, I just gooo. Can't rush out when I'm backed in

It's easier to back into the space and it's easier to drive out of it. The question should be why do people drive forwards into parking bays and then struggle to back out?

The rear of my car is ugly

When pulling out, we are often more distracted because we have just been doing something else. Conversely, when parking, we are already in driving mode so it is easy to concentrate. Pulling put forward seems safer to me, as I can see everything so less likely to have an accident.

Also, it is normal where I live to reverse park.

Because who doesn't like loading their boot/trunk with shopping in hard mode?

Maybe it's because i drive a pickup, I don't know, but for me backing into a space is just a lot easier than pulling in forward.

I think you just need more experience driving. Either one is pretty much equally easy, it just depends on how much space you have to work with and what angle you're approaching from. For example there's one parking spot at my workplace that's basically impossible to get into without backing into it.

I park either way, whichever leads to less maneuvering for that particular spot, but it's easy since I have a backup camera.

I got in the habit of backing into parking spaces after I had a car that needed a jump start, but I had pulled in and no spaces next to me were available to pull the jumper car into. If you back in, in the rare chance you need a jump start, you will be able to drive the jumper car close to your battery

Lots of people with sound, logical explanations of why it's better and easier but nobody talking about, with the common angled parking lots these days, how you then end up pulling out the opposite direction of everyone else and going the wrong way down a one way lane or doing a u-turn and basically fucking everything up for anyone else.

If I’m out at retail I’ll just pull through, but at home I prefer to back into my driveway. My wife’s stupid SUV blocks all sight of the street when I’m getting out of my driveway, so I don’t like backing out of it since I’m blind until it’s almost too late. Backing in to park is the only option and I do it so much I barely think about it. That and we sometimes have kids playing out in the streets in our neighborhood, so I don’t want to take a chance on that.

I remember hearing about a study that claimed that backing into parking spaces could have you hundreds of dollars per year, since doing the reversing while the engine is hot uses less gas.

coin flip pretty much

I prefer parking for a quicker exit, but if the particular parking spot is too narrow or there's a lot of traffic in the lot I'll just park normal no big deal

Practical reasons aside (visibility and ease of pulling out) I simply prefer it.