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What is the shortest space a parked car can get out of? Or a parking car can get into?

Hillary Shaw
Newport, Shropshire, UK

Since cars are essentially rectangular, the very shortest space a car can theoretically enter or exit, by Pythagoras’s theorem, is the diagonal from one front corner to the back corner on the opposite side, so 4.47 metres for an average car of 2 × 4 metres.

However, at this diagonal point, the (for example) left rear corner of the car is touching the kerb, the right rear corner is touching the car behind, the front left corner…