In many ways, parking areas are just as important as the buildings they adjoin. When parking areas are inadequate, people can have a difficult time visiting or returning to the business, home, or other establishment. Moreover, though they don’t appear complex in many instances, there are many facets that parking areas must account for in order to avoid inadvertently causing problems for people who will use them. Remember these considerations for parking area design when planning one.
Landscaping
Parking lots and structures may be primarily composed of materials such as concrete and asphalt, but landscaping is still important in their design. One purpose that plants can fulfill in a parking area is to offset its visual harshness. Plants can make the area feel more attractive and promote a more positive mood because of their natural elements. Consequently, the building associated with the parking area can feel more welcoming. Trees in particular are useful because they can provide some degree of shade to parking lots as well.
Pedestrian Safety
An additional consideration for parking area design is whether the area promotes the safety of people who are walking through to get to and from their vehicles. As you space out the lanes for the cars, you should leave enough room for pedestrians to walk as vehicles pass by. You might also position the lanes to be perpendicular with the adjacent building to make the walk to and from parked cars natural.
In a multilevel structure, there should be ample entryways and exits, including staircases and elevators to make it easy for people to walk in and out. Raised partitions with paths for pedestrians that are surrounded by landscaping can further help to keep people safe while in a parking lot or when walking out of a parking structure to the main building.
Utilization of Space
In areas where space is limited, the way in which you utilize the area can mean the difference between enough spots for vehicles and too few. Owing to the overall rectangular shape of vehicles, the parking lot should also be rectangular so that little space is wasted by cars. Cars that are parked parallel to each other can remain quite close, but if there is a curve in the parking area, there must be added wedge-shaped empty spaces between them.
You might also consider installing various types of parking lifts if you are working with a parking structure. The lifts will allow cars to be stowed in a vertical space that is normally unusable by holding them up above the floor in each level of a multistoried area. It is also possible to design an entire shelf-like structure that is either above or below ground that stores cars closer together than normal by relying on automated platforms to move them in and out.
