Philadelphia Crowned Its Best Parallel Parker With a Chunk of Curb and $76
Drivers were judged on closeness to the curb and fewest bumps, before a cheering crowd of hundreds.
The Headlines · The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and the Pentagon’s Plan to Livestream an ExecutionHundreds of people gathered in Philadelphia this past weekend to watch an unconventional competition, and held their breath as a car inched backward toward the curb.
"Backing it up slowly," an unidentified announcer said over the loudspeaker. "Backing it up slowly."
One driver after another took the wheel for the crowd. One contestant was called The Angle. Each tried to outdo the others while judges scored the attempts, and the crowd cheered at every turn of the wheel.
What they were watching was a parallel parking contest. It had several stages, among them Tight Squeeze and Under Duress. Drivers scored best by finishing close to the curb without hitting the cars around them.
The tension was in the inches. "She's cutting to the right," the announcer said during one attempt. "A nice steady pace. Slow and steady."
The winner received $76, equal to a parking ticket in the city, along with a trophy made out of a chunk of city curb.
Philadelphia did not invent the idea. Similar parallel parking competitions have been held in Pittsburgh, in Austin, and in Portland, Oregon.
Questions people ask
Why is parallel parking so hard that people would watch it as a sport?
Yes. It requires backing into a space barely longer than the car while judging distance in mirrors, turning the wheel at just the right moment, and avoiding the curb and neighboring cars. Surveys of American drivers regularly rank it as the most dreaded maneuver on the driving test.
Why was the prize exactly $76?
Philadelphia sets parking fines by violation, and $76 is the standard fine for many common parking violations in the city. Organizers used the amount as a joke, turning the price of parking badly into the reward for parking well.
Do other cities really hold parking contests?
Yes. Pittsburgh, Austin, and Portland, Oregon, have all hosted them, often as lighthearted neighborhood events. They tend to draw big crowds because almost everyone has a parking horror story, and watching experts squeeze into tiny spots is surprisingly tense.