Parking lot striping, the process of painting a parking lot with the lines that mark parking spaces and other signage like handicapped parking and traffic lines, might seem like a simple process. However, there is a lot more to parking lot striping than you might think! Explore all of the details of parking lot striping that are crucial for the safety and functionality of a parking lot.
Parking Lot Striping Details
Parking lot striping is what tells drivers where (and where not!) to drive, where to park, and so on. Without adequate striping, a parking lot would turn into a free-for-all with drivers parking haphazardly and driving where they shouldn’t; this increases the danger of an accident involving both pedestrians and other vehicles. Parking lot striping keeps a parking lot as orderly and as safe as possible.
There is a lot of planning that goes into designing parking lot striping, such as how wide parking spots and driving lanes (called aisles) will be, if parking stalls will be slanted, straight, or parallel, the desired flow of traffic, choosing handicapped parking, and delineating areas for pedestrians.
Stripes in parking lots are four inches wide and 15 or 18 inches long, and it usually takes at least two coats of paint to create a stripe that is 15 milliliters thick so that it is bright, visible, and long-lasting. How parking lot stripers go about painting stripes in a parking lot will depend on whether they are painting a new layout, painting restripes, or painting resurfaced restripes.
The type of paint used is also important. Usually, parking lot stripers will use oil-based paint, called alkyd, for restripes and new layouts. Latex paint is most often used for parking lots that have been resurfaced, but latex can also be used for new layouts and restriping as well.
Parking stalls, or where vehicles are parked, are usually nine feet by 18 feet to accommodate all sizes of vehicles, but cities can have different zoning guidelines that must be followed. Furthermore, handicapped parking stalls must have a minimum of eight feet of clearance width-wise and have a minimum of five feet of clearance for an access way; again, these numbers may be different depending on the zoning requirements of different cities.
Aisles usually need to be 22 feet between straight parking stalls, but many parking lots utilize 24-foot aisles throughout the parking lot to offer sufficient clearance for vehicles to back out of parking spots. Angled parking stalls require aisles that are just 16 feet wide, but aisles have to be one-way. Lastly, parallel parking stalls need 22 feet of aisle if the traffic is two-way and 12 feet if traffic is one-way.
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