Angle parking lots or perpendicular parking lots?

[tolbs17]

I've been a fan of angle parking lots in like Walmarts and malls and I think I like it that way.

For regular stores and businesses, like Target, Food Lion etc. I think perpendicular is better.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm not a fan of angled parking but Walmart usually does it the worst.  I like to park in the back of a lot and not be near other drivers.  Walmart puts concrete medians in which forces you to drive through a one-way row of angled spots which takes the advantage of not dealing with pedestrians away.  Worse, Walmart makes their rows very narrow which I think is a lot capacity thing.  It's hard to walk in those narrow lanes and it's a little nerve wracking worrying if someone will suddenly appear when attempting to back up.  At least with stores like Target the perpendicular parking spaces generally avail more options for navigating the parking lot. 

[wanderer2575]

What does the store or business have to do with it?  Why would that have anything to do with your preference?

I've read somewhere that, in general, angled parking is less efficient than perpendicular parking in terms of number of parking slots, although there are exceptions depending on the circumstances (shape of the parking lot, how entrances/exits in/out of the lot are located, etc.).  But in terms of use, angled parking can have some advantages:  It helps force one-way traffic up and down the aisles (obviously not a sure thing) and it can be easier to pull into and back out of (perhaps an advantage for the seemingly-increasing number of people driving gargantuan SUVs and trucks who are incapable of maneuvering them to stay between two painted lines, and also an advantage when space between aisles is narrow).

But it's safer to back in when parking than to back out when leaving, so I prefer perpendicular parking because that makes backing in easier.

[Mr. Matté]

As an engineer who has designed a couple of parking lots, typically the aisle width (at least in my Central Jersey neck of the woods) is set by the municipality's land use ordinance. Most of the time, I've pretty much only done perpendicular parking but the advantage that you appear to get with angled parking is reduced required minimum aisle width, mostly because it ends up having to be one-way.

Here's a sample ordinance on aisle width from one town in which I frequently do work:

[jeffandnicole]

Perpendicular.  Because drivers often drive the wrong way down an angled aisle, then look at the correct-way driver as if they're the one causing the problem.

I’m not a fan of angled parking but Walmart usually does it the worst.  I like to park in the back of a lot and not be near other drivers.  Walmart puts concrete medians in which forces you to drive through a one-way row of angled spots which takes the advantage of not dealing with pedestrians away.  Worse, Walmart makes their rows very narrow which I think is a lot capacity thing.  It’s hard to walk in those narrow lanes and it’s a little nerve wracking worrying if someone will suddenly appear when attempting to back up.  At least with stores like Target the perpendicular parking spaces generally avail more options for navigating the parking lot. 

Most of this is set via town/county/state ordinance, not the store.  In some cases, Walmart doesn't even own the store or parking lot.  Most of the Walmarts I'm familiar with have perpendicular parking, which further lends to the argument that Walmart isn't purposely designing angled parking lots and preventing cut-thrus.

[hbelkins]

Definitely angled. Easier to get in and out of. The Walmart in Jackson, Ky., switched from angled to perpendicular several years ago. I understand that the number of police reports for fender-benders went up afterwards. They re-striped a couple of years ago and went back to angled parking. I understand they lost only about 10 spaces because of that.

[Max Rockatansky]

Perpendicular.  Because drivers often drive the wrong way down an angled aisle, then look at the correct-way driver as if they're the one causing the problem.

I'm not a fan of angled parking but Walmart usually does it the worst.  I like to park in the back of a lot and not be near other drivers.  Walmart puts concrete medians in which forces you to drive through a one-way row of angled spots which takes the advantage of not dealing with pedestrians away.  Worse, Walmart makes their rows very narrow which I think is a lot capacity thing.  It's hard to walk in those narrow lanes and it's a little nerve wracking worrying if someone will suddenly appear when attempting to back up.  At least with stores like Target the perpendicular parking spaces generally avail more options for navigating the parking lot. 

Most of this is set via town/county/state ordinance, not the store.  In some cases, Walmart doesn't even own the store or parking lot.  Most of the Walmarts I'm familiar with have perpendicular parking, which further lends to the argument that Walmart isn't purposely designing angled parking lots and preventing cut-thrus.

Almost every city I've lived in doesn't have a local parking lot configuration on parking lot orientation but 9 out of 10 times a Walmart lot will still be laid out with angled.  The hard median is definitely a Walmart angled lot trope, usually you only see those in office complexes.  It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a commonality of hard medians.   I want to say Scottsdale had an angled ordinance but stores like Target would build them without a concrete median.  In those cases it wasn't so bad since I could still park in the back and pull a U-Turn through the spot ahead rather than be forced to the front of the store. 

[Brian556]

Angled is worlds better, You can get in and out way easier. With perpendicular, large vehicles have to do some odd maneuvers to even get in the spaces, and just because its way more difficult to get into an perpendicular space, the likelihood of side-scrape accidents is greatly increased

[1995hoo]

I have mixed feelings. In general, I think angled parking USUALLY seems to promote better driver behavior. It also reduces the number of times you encounter the back-in crowd who don't use blinkers and just expect you to know they'll randomly stop and throw it in reverse. But the most annoying thing is when you get someone who is determined to back into a space in an angled parking facility despite the much sharper angle involved.

Second most annoying may be when someone pulls through to face out in an angled facility that lacks the concrete blocker things and then drives the wrong way down the drive aisle to exit and expects everyone else to stay out of his way. I often like to pull through, except at the grocery store (because I want easy access to the trunk and I don't like pushing the cart between parked cars), so that's one strike against angled parking for me because I won't usually do it in angled lots if the drive aisles are marked for one-way traffic. (The grocery store is the #1 place where backing in makes no sense to me because it's by far the place where you're most likely to be putting a decent amount of stuff in the trunk.)

[texaskdog]

angled is best already enough knuckleheads to deal with you don't have to look two directions and hope someone is not tearing through at 30

[vdeane]

I don't think I've ever seen an angled lot allow two-way traffic, though that doesn't stop people from doing so anyways.

I've actually pulled through in angled lots a couple times, when I'm confident that there's enough room to get out of the spot and still drive the correct way (though this can involve some backing up, but save a ton of distance on driving depending on how the lot is configured).

[Rothman]

I think I've seen two-way angled lots (where the spaces look like slants instead of Vs).

I don't like angled aisles because of the wrong-way confusion they always generate (as mentioned upthread).

[jjakucyk]

This is the worst of both worlds I think, angled with two-way aisles.  https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1555059,-79.4168545,183m/data=!3m1!1e3  For whatever reason it's quite popular in this particular area.  So you get the capacity reduction from angled spots, AND you still need wide aisles.  Plus half the spots are going to require a greater than 90-degree turn to get into or pull out of.  I GUESS maybe it gives a narrower aisle than 90-degree spots, and it gives an out for anyone who pulls through so they're not facing the wrong way down a one-way aisle, but I don't really buy it.  The beauty of angled parking is you have one-way traffic in the aisles, and easy pull-in back-out maneuvers (though ruined by anyone who backs in or pulls through).  I still don't think you can get as much capacity as 90-degree parking though, even with the narrower aisles.  We're talking about <10% difference, but that adds up. 

The Wal-Mart up the street does angled parking mostly right, but still does the wonky two-way thing on the last couple aisles on the north side. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1601568,-79.4235629,219m/data=!3m1!1e3

Most other large lots in the area that have angled parking do it the weird way.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1792311,-79.431101,258m/data=!3m1!1e3
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1576427,-79.4119611,151m/data=!3m1!1e3
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4849783,-79.2008596,207m/data=!3m1!1e3

[tolbs17]

Like why did the Jacksonville Mall in North Carolina changed from angle parking to perpendicular parking?

[corco]

Perpendicular to discourage people from driving ridiculously large vehicles- why subsidize their inefficient choice with wasted asphalt?

[epzik8]

I selected angled on the poll. In reality, I have no strong preference. Angled parking is good for parking spaces that are located along one-way driveways. Usually, I associate retail parking with perpendicular spaces.

[CardInLex]

Is back in angle parking an option? That is the best in my opinion. Easier to get in and out.

[Rothman]

Is back in angle parking an option? That is the best in my opinion. Easier to get in and out.

Required on Erie Blvd in Syracuse, NY.

[tolbs17]

Is back in angle parking an option? That is the best in my opinion. Easier to get in and out.

I was thinking about regular parking lots.

[kphoger]

I voted for perpendicular.  I don't want to have to skip a lane with an empty spot just because the angle is wrong.

However, realizing that angle parking may allow for a greater number of spots, I'm not opposed to it.

[tradephoric]

Can we mention on-street parking?  South Bend is changing their parking on Michigan St. to angled parking:


https://wsbt.com/news/local/south-bend-to-add-angled-street-parking-four-way-stops-to-downtowns-michigan-st

[kphoger]

Can we mention on-street parking?  South Bend is changing their parking on Michigan St. to angled parking:

[img

https://wsbt.com/news/local/south-bend-to-add-angled-street-parking-four-way-stops-to-downtowns-michigan-st

Not sure which would be more appropriate for that:
1.  This thread, which is specifically about parking lots
2.  The existing thread specifically about back-in angle parking
3.  Starting a new thread

[ozarkman417]

Anything but parallel 

Between the two I prefer angled when it's along a street. Otherwise, Perpendicular. Because makes it easier to exit the space in any direction.

[roadman]

Anything but parallel 

Between the two I prefer angled when it's along a street. Otherwise, Perpendicular. Because makes it easier to exit the space in any direction.

Angle parking on a street only when it's back-in parking.  Backing out of an angle space onto an active street, especially when you're in a small sedan and there are 'road behemoth" sized SUVs or pickup trucks in the adjacent spaces, is not one of my favorite experiences. 

[kphoger]

Angle parking on a street only when it's back-in parking.  Backing out of an angle space onto an active street, especially when you're in a small sedan and there are 'road behemoth" sized SUVs or pickup trucks in the adjacent spaces, is not one of my favorite experiences. 

How is backing out of an angled spot any worse than backing out of a perpendicular spot along the street (such as the South Bend example posted by tradephoric)?