Parking is one of the things candidates are tested on, and the Model Town Board has its own corner for it. NTSA's learner handbook describes two kinds of parking on the board and has a rule about when you may drive through the parking area.
Angle parking
In angle parking the bays are set at a slant to the aisle, at 45 degrees. It is also called controlled or ample parking.
- Who may use it: small cars only. Buses and heavy vehicles do not park here.
- Go in by the entrance and follow the aisle.
- Take the farthest free bay. The bays fill from the far end first.
- Drive in forwards.
- Reverse out, giving way to traffic in the aisle coming from your right.
The slant tells you which way to come from. A bay leans away from you in the direction you are driving, so you can turn into it without swinging wide.
Flush parking
Flush parking is parking in line with the kerb, the kind most people call parallel parking. You will also hear it called flash parking or uncontrolled parking. The method is the other way round from angle parking:
- Who may use it: any vehicle except a trailer or a tractor. It is for short stops.
- Take the farthest free box.
- Drive past it, then reverse in.
- Drive out forwards.
Buses and heavy vehicles
Buses and heavy commercial vehicles are not allowed in the angle bays. They have their own spaces, and the method is the flush one: drive past the space and reverse into it, never nose first. Our board has no bus bay, so ask your school to show you theirs.
The controlled parking zone
The handbook lists the controlled parking zone among the board's features, along with the way into it and the way out of it. On our board the zone has a give way line at each end of its aisle, because you are joining another road when you leave.
Keep out of it unless you have to
Two of the handbook's three route rules are about parking:
- Take the shortest correct route, avoiding the parking area.
- If a continuous line blocks the short way from your lane, take the longest correct route, still avoiding the parking area.
- Use the parking area only as a last resort.
So the parking area is not a shortcut. If one route cuts through it and a longer route goes round, take the longer one.
No parking here
You lose marks for stopping, parking or waiting in any of these places:
- On the roundabout. Parking is one of the five things the handbook says you must not do on it.
- On double yellow lines or beside a yellow kerb.
- At a junction, or within 10 metres of one.
- On a pedestrian crossing.
- On a pavement, a footpath or the green.
- Near the brow of a hill, in a bus stop or in a clearway. These are road rules an examiner may ask about. Our board has none of them.
- Where a sign forbids it. Learn Parking prohibited and the other parking signs on the Pelican chart.
What to ask your driving school
- Where the entrance and the far end of the parking zone are on their board.
- Where buses and heavy vehicles park on their board.
- Whether flush parking is tested at your centre.
In the trainer
Our trainer teaches both kinds the handbook's way. In an angle bay you drive in forwards and reverse out. In flush parking you drive past the bay, reverse in, and drive out forwards.
- Watch it first. The parking levels start with the rules, then a car does each move a step at a time.
- Find the farthest free bay. The parked cars stand in different bays from one attempt to the next, so the bay to take changes. It is the one with the green box.
- Then drive it. There are four parking tasks. They have a reverse gear: stop, pull the joystick back and hold it, and the back of the car goes where you point. With lane assist on, the car is steered into or out of the bay as you reverse.
You pass when the car is stopped inside the lines and straight. Stopping on a pedestrian crossing on the way costs a star. In a task that is not about parking, nobody stops you for driving through the parking zone, but the drive is then not a pass, because that is never the shortest correct route.
More on the Model Town Board
- The Model Town Board levelsThe board, the lanes and the rules first. Then you drive.
- Model Town Board diagram, labelledEvery road, lane, line and bay on the board, named.
- Model Town Board lane options: 2124 and 2152124 and 215: which lane may take which turn.
- Model Town Board questions and answers (60+)Lanes, the roundabout, routes and parking, each with its rule.
- Model Town Board roundabout rulesClockwise, no stopping or changing lanes, and leaving right.
- Model Town Board rulesThe route rules, lane numbers, lines, kerbs, stop and give way.
Sources
- Kenya Learner Driver Handbook, compiled by NTSA, 2016, Unit 3: Model Town. We could not find it on NTSA's own site, so this copy is hosted by a driving school. Ask your school whether your test centre still follows it.
- How to Pass the NTSA Driving Test in Kenya: Model Town Board & Highway Code Explained, Kenyans.co.ke, 2 August 2025, for parking being one of the things candidates are tested on.