Parking Lots

[roadfro]

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.

[jakeroot]

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.
  

The other Walmart in Puyallup, WA doesn't have the special scheme. It has all yellow paint. Perhaps it's just the newer Walmarts. The first Puyallup location I posted was built in 2006, versus the mid 90s for the latter.

[Laura]

The parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Lewisville, Texas was originally built without any barriers to prevent cross-lot driving. this lasted a few years, and unbelievably, they redid the lot to have islands separating every other row to stop this. I was impressed that a business actually did something to improve safety in their lot.

Businesses are extra reluctant to do this in northern states, because it makes removing snow a lot more difficult.

If I'm cutting across a parking lot, it's because it was poorly designed in other ways (like putting the access road in an illogical spot). Personally, I don't like barriers in parking lots because they are often also placed in illogical spots.


iPhone

[dmr37]

there is a very good way to avoid getting into a troublesome situation at a Walmart parking lot ...

...don't shop at Walmart?

That works for me! FCK WM and the Chinese crap they sell! FCK WM for the way they treat their employess! There are too many mom & pop stores that actually appreciate my business to go to WM. BUY AMERICAN!

what can you buy at the mom and pop store that's not made outside the US? (besides food)

[Billy F 1988]

there is a very good way to avoid getting into a troublesome situation at a Walmart parking lot ...

...don't shop at Walmart?

Uh, try jumping over Walmart, Kmart, and land on Target!

[realjd]

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.
  

The other Walmart in Puyallup, WA doesn't have the special scheme. It has all yellow paint. Perhaps it's just the newer Walmarts. The first Puyallup location I posted was built in 2006, versus the mid 90s for the latter.

Notice the large number of cars in the white striped lot between the WalMart and the Home Depot?

[jakeroot]

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.
  

The other Walmart in Puyallup, WA doesn't have the special scheme. It has all yellow paint. Perhaps it's just the newer Walmarts. The first Puyallup location I posted was built in 2006, versus the mid 90s for the latter.

Notice the large number of cars in the white striped lot between the WalMart and the Home Depot?

Apparently I'm blind.

[realjd]

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.
  

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.
  

The other Walmart in Puyallup, WA doesn't have the special scheme. It has all yellow paint. Perhaps it's just the newer Walmarts. The first Puyallup location I posted was built in 2006, versus the mid 90s for the latter.

Notice the large number of cars in the white striped lot between the WalMart and the Home Depot?

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.
  

It's hard to tell but for Fallon it looks like most of the lot is striped yellow while the side lot and the spaces across the driveway (far N end of the lot) are white.

[PenguinXL2]

Some parking lots are 50% handicap spaces , like one at a gas station near Harrisburg , PA.

[jakeroot]

Some parking lots are 50% handicap spaces , like one at a gas station near Harrisburg , PA.

That's a great start, but could you be a little bit more specific? Harrisburg is a pretty big city.

[roadfro]

Random fact: Walmart typically has a portion of the parking lot toward the back where they stripe the spaces using opposite color paint (e.g. yellow striping when most of the spots are white). That's where the employees are forced to park. Source: a friend worked for Walmart in college.

It's true...Wal-Mart near Puyallup, Wash:

It's not universal...

• Walmart in Reno, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Sparks, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart in Fallon, NV: GMSV
  
• Walmart & Sam's Club in Las Vegas, NV: GMSV
  
• etc.
  

It's hard to tell but for Fallon it looks like most of the lot is striped yellow while the side lot and the spaces across the driveway (far N end of the lot) are white.

I didn't look to closely at that one and just thought the main lot lines were well worn. Looking again, maybe they are yellow and were the result of a repainting in the main lot. Even if the distant spaces are a different color, the employee parking restriction does not appear to apply here...

When you look at the Reno example, there is a lot on the south side of the store. From personal observation (this is the Walmart closest to where I live), most of the employees park over there--there's also a side lot on the north end by the garden center side where some of them park also.

[xcellntbuy]

Easiest way to avoid parking lots?  The Internet is your friend.

[dmr37]

Easiest way to avoid parking lots?  The Internet is your friend.

who needs roads when you can look at pictures of them on Google Earth

[Zmapper]

I would have thought that the differently colored spaces in Walmart lots are where they prefer overnighters park as a matter of courtesy, but Walmart never publicized anything to confirm this.

Is there a side or rear lot where employees are permitted to park? Only 16 vehicles are parked in the white spaces; even generously assuming that everyone parked in a white space is an employee there doesn't seem to be enough cars parked for the number of employees likely in the store at that time.

[Dustin DeWinn]

Walmart in Winterville, NC does this too.

What do the different colors signify? On a highway the striping has very clear meaning (one or two directional) but what does it mean for parking lots?

[Big John]

^^ I think the white stripes are for employee parking.

[SSOWorld]

Parking lots?  Ok, here you go.



oh wait...

[jeffandnicole]

What do the different colors signify? On a highway the striping has very clear meaning (one or two directional) but what does it mean for parking lots?

Technically, there is no required colors for parking spaces. Not even blue is required for handicap spots. The only requirement is that handicapped parking lines have to be a different color than the rest of the lines.

[jakeroot]

What do the different colors signify? On a highway the striping has very clear meaning (one or two directional) but what does it mean for parking lots?

Technically, there is no required colors for parking spaces. Not even blue is required for handicap spots. The only requirement is that handicapped parking lines have to be a different color than the rest of the lines.

Is that a new requirement or an NJ-thing? I have definitely seen more than a few handicap stalls with blue striping, but they pale in comparison to the number of stalls with white striping.

[bulldog1979]

Walmart in Winterville, NC does this too.

What do the different colors signify? On a highway the striping has very clear meaning (one or two directional) but what does it mean for parking lots?

Many stores use a different color line to denote employee parking. Some stores put stripes on light poles, and employees have to park beyond those marked poles.

[briantroutman]

And this to me seems like terrible traffic planning: Why intentionally funnel nearly all entering traffic directly to the point where pedestrians need to cross to enter the store?

Wouldn't it make more sense to direct traffic in a different way to reduce the vehicle/pedestrian conflict?

[jakeroot]

https://preview.ibb.co/i5ckKx/walmart_winterville.png

And this to me seems like terrible traffic planning: Why intentionally funnel nearly all entering traffic directly to the point where pedestrians need to cross to enter the store?

Wouldn't it make more sense to direct traffic in a different way to reduce the vehicle/pedestrian conflict?

Poor planning in general. There are several default layouts for Walmarts, and I would guess this design was chosen before pedestrian and vehicle conflicts were considered. The easiest way to rectify the situation would be to place the entrance to the parking lot somewhere other than where it is, but that's a lot easier said than done. And I also suspect that the access location as-is was chosen perhaps by the city, and not Walmart.

[myosh_tino]

Parking lots?  Ok, here you go.



oh wait...

[GenExpwy]

And this to me seems like terrible traffic planning: Why intentionally funnel nearly all entering traffic directly to the point where pedestrians need to cross to enter the store?

Wouldn't it make more sense to direct traffic in a different way to reduce the vehicle/pedestrian conflict?

Tracked it down on Google:
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.5665864,-77.3575697,313m/data=!3m1!1e3
(Corner of E Arlington Blvd and E Fire Tower Rd, on the SSE outskirts of Greenville NC)

1. That's a Walmart Neighborhood Market, not a Supercenter, and what you see in the photo is the entire parking lot.

2. The main entrance is from E Arlington Blvd, from the right (upper right corner of the photo). Traffic from E Fire Tower Rd comes in from the bottom left; presumably, most people would take the first entrance into the lot, just beyond the bottom of the photo.

[I assume Dustin DeWinn zoomed in that far just to show the line colors, and a couple of people then misread the traffic-planning situation.]

[Dustin DeWinn]

And this to me seems like terrible traffic planning: Why intentionally funnel nearly all entering traffic directly to the point where pedestrians need to cross to enter the store?

Wouldn't it make more sense to direct traffic in a different way to reduce the vehicle/pedestrian conflict?

Tracked it down on Google:
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.5665864,-77.3575697,313m/data=!3m1!1e3
(Corner of E Arlington Blvd and E Fire Tower Rd, on the SSE outskirts of Greenville NC)

1. That's a Walmart Neighborhood Market, not a Supercenter, and what you see in the photo is the entire parking lot.

2. The main entrance is from E Arlington Blvd, from the right (upper right corner of the photo). Traffic from E Fire Tower Rd comes in from the bottom left; presumably, most people would take the first entrance into the lot, just beyond the bottom of the photo.

[I assume Dustin DeWinn zoomed in that far just to show the line colors, and a couple of people then misread the traffic-planning situation.]

Correct. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to mislead anyone. My question was about the colors and ended up causing more confusion (than necessary).