Many a year back, I was a manager of letter carriers in the Postal Service, which claimed to get its safe driving policies directly from the National Safety Council, and the official policy on parking in a lot or turning around was to back in and pull out. The concept was that you could see into the empty space as you pulled past before backing in, and then have a clear view both ways when pulling out. In practice, local carrier operations may vary. A smart carrier would use the fire lane like UPS does--but shut off the engine, lock all doors, set parking brake and chock the wheels, by the book. Backing incidents are a real bugaboo for USPS: the neck-brace crowd are known to pull up intimately close to those mounted-route LLV's in hope that the carrier will find one more letter as he pulls away from a curbline box, shove into R without looking at the "pot lid" mirror, and nip the nose of the POV in the blind spot, resulting in a percentage-basis legal representation.
Gun nuts are taught that NYC's original disarmament laws were lobbied by bought aldermen of the criminal class, who resented being shot during muggings. Considering the RAC rationale for backing into the car park--blocking access to the "boot"--perhaps we could attribute the state "nose-in" law to the same source?
____________________________________ in New York State, it is against the law, especially in municipal lots, and in privately owned shopping centers, there are signs that state. NOSE IN ONLY failure to follow will result in a fine and a tow.