Parking Lots Outnumber People, Add to Pollution

Big box stores are incredibly guilty here...rarely do I drive by one that has even a 1/2 full parking lot.

To paraphrase my 6-year old daughter, "They're killing the land!"

Are there any civil engineers out there that know how developers determine the size of the parking lot?

Hi, t-rex!

Sorry to take so long getting back on this. I just noticed the posting. Developers have no say in the number of parking spaces, except to negotiate with the city in order to ameliorate the rules in their favour by offering trade-offs for actually, in most cases less parking --because sometimes there is not enough land to satisfy the requirements of local by-laws & building codes, which are generally worded something like:

"generally applying non-residential parking standards to a uniform measure of gross floor area (g.f.a.) and expressing the standards in terms of "x" spaces per 100 square metres of g.f.a., with a common rounding procedure"

The purpose of these rules, which are set up by city planners, is to enable the box store to accommodate its shoppers with parking spaces, including so-many for disabled parking based upon floor area as well. It's based not on slow days, but on what will be anticipated when the store is full...even though that rarely happens.

The developers can often get away with less parking space according to the regulations if the box store is located very close to public transit. So in smaller cities, the developers try to make arrangements for the local transit company to actually place a stop at the front door in order to satisfy the parking requirements for a mall, for instance, where there is not enough land to provide both the mall and the parking requirement provisions.

This is not to say that developers, given a free hand, wouldn't try to maximize their profits in any way they could get away with...they are cognizant of their participation in this regard and not apologetic, since they depend upon building codes and zoning by laws to regulate them; and they say, "Hey, if the code doesn't cover it, and you don't like it, too bad! We're not in business to protect your sensibilities." And they're not, which is why we have instituted special protective procedures for development at the civic level in every city in the world.

Mark

While this large ratio of parking spaces/drivers may be true, I would have to believe that the reason for the large parking lots are based on governmental building requriements that mandate a certain number of spots for given facility. - Very similar to the requirements of having a certain number of handicapped spots that never seem to be full. - Even fitness centers and other places that are infrequently visited by the handicapped are required to have these.

Yep--

The model building codes are based on the assumption of a strongly automobile-oriented society. You take the number of patrons or occupants and convert it into the necessary number of parking spaces, using a ratio of so-many occupants per car (such as 2.2). Then you have to factor in the required size of each space, based on the typical vehicle dimensions and the necessary additional width for opening doors. If the aisles are bi-directional, they have to be wider than 1-way aisles and the spaces have to be 90-degree. With 1-way aisles certain angles give the minimum total required area per space, but then the overall dimensions of the lot influence this as well. . . .

We really need to look at urban mass transit. The cost of providing all these spaces comes from many factors: 1) the increased peak storm runoff, 2) the construction cost, 3) the heating of the surroundings from the normally dark surface, 4) the loss of tax revenue based on the lower value of the land's use, 5) the inconvenience and difficulty caused to non-users of automobiles, and others, 6) the decreased density of land use which further degrades profitability of mass-transit, etc.

We need to relax our rigid worship of the automobile. Perhaps with fewer parking spaces, people will be encouraged to plan their trips or share trips with neighbors. As long as we are silent, the traditional school of traffic and land use planning will continue to push us down the same path we are already on.

--JMM