Parking Lot Puzzle

[James Patten]

Now that the parking lot has been graded, it's time to start thinking about how to best get everybody to park in it.  First we should start with the original idea, as presented in the first newsletter of 2008:



As you can see, the original idea was 3 lanes of parking, with a turn-around half-loop at the north end.  The restroom is letter D, with handicapped parking at letter K.

Now, here's an image as taken by Google Earth, with the actual parking area marked out in orange.  Unfortunately I don't have a graphics tool better than Paint, which only allows you to rotate objects every 90 degrees, so I cannot re-orient it.  Feel free to save this and use on your own graphics tool, and come up with a good plan.  The bulge near the garage is the pile of lumber that Fred brought in, and is in about the same place after the grading.



Here's my very rough drawing as to how to make it work - again, crude because Paint won't let me rotate less than 90 degrees.

[Wayne Laepple]

Well, a couple of questions arise. What are the dimensions of the lot as it currently exists? How will traffic be "controlled" during times of heavy use such as Victorian Christmas? I recall some time back there was a fairly heated discussion about the size of parking spots, how wide the aisles need to be, what sort of "curbing" would be used, etc. There are people who make a living out of designing parking lots and developing plans for traffic flows, so it might be worth seeing if there is any useful information available on line.

In looking at the second drawing with the arrows, I wonder whether visitors could be directed to circulate into and out of the lot without a whole squad of volunteers there to point people into and out of parking spots, etc. Unless we can get hold of a bunch of "One Way" and "Keep Right" signs, it's going to be tough. And how are we going to designate unloading zones and parking for buses and handicapped visitors? More signs, I guess.

[Mike Fox]

Well, as someone who has been in and out of several parking lots, both in 4-wheel cars and much larger trucks, there needs to be a second entrance.

The original parking plan included a second entrance. There should be one closer to the house than the present entrance, and be in only, with the current entrance being the exit. This will allow cars to enter the first aisle every time, filling the spaces closest to the house and museum first. I will see about creating a drawing to explain...

[Ed Lecuyer]

Here is a rotated image. (James, Paint.net does rotating and lots of editing - and it's completely free.)

The dimensions of the cleared area are about 160' x 190'.

[Mike Fox]

[James Patten]

I think originally the idea was that the parking lot would be a 1 acre lot.  Which I think is 200 x 200.

[Wayne Laepple]

Based on the dimensions Ed has provided, keeping a 24-foot wide roadway across the front and rear of the lot, we can provide parking for 75 vehicles in spaces 9 feet wide and 18 feet deep. Starting closest to the house, there would be a single row of 18-foot long stalls, then an aisle 24 feet wide, a facing pair of 18 foot stalls, a 24 foot aisle, another pair of facing 18 foot stalls and a 24 foot aisle. This doesn't provide any parking spaces for campers, trailers or buses, nor handicapped spaces, which are required to be 12 feet wide.

If there was a clockwise flow in and out, we could probably reduce the width of the rear roadway to 15 feet and gain another five parking spaces, or perhaps campers and buses could park along the back edge. Another option would be angled parking, which would allow narrower aisles, perhaps gaining another row of spaces. With angled spaces and 15 foot aisles, we could manage five rows of 17 spaces each, or 85 spaces, plus a wide aisle along the west side for buses and campers.

[Bill Reidy]

Many things to consider here, so here are some thoughts in no particular order:

-- As Wayne noted, there are professionals who earn a living designing these solutions, so there should be Internet resources to help.  A quick check via big brother Google found this PDF document (http://www.apai.net/cmdocs/apai/designguide/Chapter_5B.pdf).  I expect there are many more out there for guidance.  Looks like 9' wide parking spots would work, with special consideration needed for handicapped spot spacing.  Does the town of Alna have any regulations for parking lots?  Or perhaps Wiscasset?

-- Mike's suggestion of two entrances onto Cross Road makes great sense and strikes me as a requirement, particularly to accommodate bus parking and turn-around.  One (probably closer to the Percival house) marked as enter only.  The other further up Cross Road marked as exit only.  As Mike stated, this would gently encourage visitors to use the spaces closest to the Percival house first, and then fill the lot toward the back on busier days.

-- Parking space markings.  This is a gravel lot, so we can't paint lines to mark spots.  Might not be a big problem, as we only have two big events where parking controls are strongly needed:  Victorian Christmas, and to a lesser degree, the Annual Picnic.  Zack had a great suggestion this weekend:  use baseball chalk to mark lines in the lot for big events.  This should work well if there isn't snow on the ground.  We could also use railroad ties as parking curbs and paint yellow lines every 9 feet or so to delineate parking spots.

-- Handicapped parking:  The original plan showing this closest to the restrooms and future walking path to the museum made sense.  We probably should also have a handicapped and bus drop off in front of the shop building (bays 1-3).  I donated 3-4 aluminum handicapped parking signs a year ago which are in the string trimmer shed, along with stainless steel lag bolts for installation on pressure treated posts.  When the time comes, take a look at these and see if they are adequate before going out to purchase new signs.

-- I don't see how we can enforce a traffic pattern in the lot beyond placement of the entrance and exit to Cross Road.  I hope the placement of the entrance and exit would be enough so we don't have to place valuable volunteers on parking lot duty, even during events like Victorian Christmas.

P.S. -- this is written before Wayne's latest post about clockwise circulation.

[Wayne Laepple]

James' original drawing with the arrows suggested a counter-clockwise traffic flow, and if we have to live with the single entrance, a sign pointing to the right and some sort of divider at the lot's entrance would direct traffic that way. Angled parking spaces would also tend to channel traffic in a counter-clockwise direction. There are specifications for the size of handicapped parking spots, and the original drawing suggested two spaces adjacent to the restroom building. As for lot marking, one of those rigs used for lining athletic fields would do the trick. I think the original intent was that handicap and bus drop off would be permitted in front of the shop.

Note: in my previous note, I should have said counter-clockwise rather than clockwise. Brain fade.....

[Ed Deere]

As a suggestion ...... Google maps/earth and look at parking lots at about the same size. Super impose them into the photos shown above.

Ed Deere

[Bill Sample]

I believe counter-clockwise direction in the parking lot would be best.  Perhaps use a drop-off for buses and vans by the shop but when they re-board, based on my observations, a trip to the rest room just before boarding is a good idea.  You would want the right side of the vehicle toward the rest room at the pick up point to minimize wandering pedestrians.

[John McNamara]

I think that the US practice of having the driver on the left favors counter-clockwise. If the driver carefully notes the clearance between his car and adjacent obstacles on the left side, the right side is more or less taken care of. It's similar to what happens driving on the right side of the highway.
-John

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Jeff removed the last of the trees (near the house) when he regraded the ditch.  There's now plenty of room for an eastern entrance from Cross Road.  When the power pole is removed the area will open up even more.

Start

[Brendan Barry]

Parking lot pictures 11/12/13.

Far north west corner of lot taken from scaffolding on the west end of the garage.


Looking from scaffolding on the west end of the garage out to Cross rd.


Looking from scaffolding on the west end of the garage out to Cross rd. entrance located at orange cones.


Looking north from entrance into lot.


Standing in south west corner of lot looking east on Cross rd.


Standing in south west corner of lot looking up western side of lot.


Some slightly different angles.

[Ira Schreiber]

Great photos but what power pole?