I use my parking brake regularly. I'm especially careful when parking on an incline because if it's not done right, the shifter might not be able to move out of "P." I once had the hardest time getting out of park when I parked my Taurus with the wheel on a tree root. The torque on the wheel made it impossible to move the column shifter. I think we got it unstuck by rocking the car forward and back. I suppose that jacking up the tire would have worked too, although you can't do that on an incline.