Typical parking lots seem like they’re designed for cars first and people as an afterthought. The common layout is rows of stalls facing each other with a drive aisle behind the bumpers, which means the “natural” walking path ends up being right where cars are backing out and driving. You see it all the time: people walking behind parked cars because there isn’t a clear place to walk, drivers inching out blind, and everyone doing that awkward "you go, no you go, no you go" standoff. It could be a whole lot better.

A safer design acknowledges that people drive cars, get out of them and need a space to walk. If you remove one column of parking and turn that space into a dedicated walkway in front of the parked cars, people aren’t forced to walk in an area that cars backout and drive. True, with this layout you lose some parking spots, in the example it is 12%, about 42, fewer cars out of 336 spots. Most of the farthest aways spots are typically empty (unless you’re at Costco). It’s a small tradeoff for a layout that’s safer to walk and drive in, better for everyone.

Parking Lot Simulator

Speed 1.00× show paths

pedestrian moving car (grey cars in the base drawing are just parked)

Typical Parking Lot design

Pedestrians use the same paths that cars back into and drive through (pink overlay).

Safer Parking Lot design

Pedestrians move in dedicated walkways (green). Cars stay in the drive aisles (grey).