A Simple Guide to Parking Lot Design

Your business’ current parking lot is old, bumpy, and poorly designed. It’s time for a new layer of pavement and a new parking lot design to make life easier on both your employees and your customers coming in and out every day.

But where do you even begin when trying to design a parking lot layout? There are lots of factors to consider, and we’re here to help.

Keep reading for the most important aspects to consider when creating your new parking design.

Parking Lot Design Factors

When beginning to plan your parking lot layout design, there are some critical factors to take into account.

For one, the amount of space you have available to build a parking lot. Are you redoing an existing lot and want to maintain the same square footage? Are you starting from scratch and have to decide how much room your parking lot will need?

Here are a few other questions to ask yourself before you break ground on your new parking lot.

Flow of the Lot

An unproductive parking lot flow can easily cause chaos and unnecessary accidents if you’re not careful.

Your parking lot may need to be designed with one-way aisles, or it may need to be built wide enough to accommodate two car-widths worth of traffic between the rows of spots.

Incorporating plenty of space for cars to maneuver will be crucial to make sure your parking lot is safe.

Angle of Spots

Although many parking lots default to the 90-degree angled spots, including 45- or 60-degree spots can help save space and encourage single-lane traffic flow.

Further, 90-degree spots tend to better serve overnight and longer-term parking needs. Angled parking spots are typically easier to pull in and out of for high traffic flow at places like grocery and convenience stores.

Shape of Lot

While you may be tempted to use as much space as is available to you for your parking lot layout, consider keeping it rectangular.

Strict boundaries and a space that is easy to measure will help to optimize your available space in the most productive manner. You also won’t have to deal with trying to fit spots into weird corners or along odd curves in your parking lot.

Lighting

Appropriate and sufficient lighting in your parking lot design is key to maintaining safety for the nighttime drivers and pedestrians traversing your lot.

The lighting should be bright to allow for clear vision. It also should not cause excessive glare, especially through windshields and windows.

Parking lot lighting is a crucial investment for your lot, and only quality and long-lasting light fixtures should be included.

How to Build a Parking Lot

After you’ve gathered your parking lot dimensions, layout, and concept, you’re on your way to getting your new parking lot.

The actual process will take lots of time and careful planning, but it all starts with your parking lot design. Once it’s all finished and ready for action, you can find more design guides for your future projects on our blog.