Usually the locality has a planning and zoning regulations that specify the length and width of parking spaces. You can make them bigger. But if it’s THAT bad, I do wonder if someone striped it wrong. Strange because planning and zoning are supposed to check. But who knows
I’ve seen all kinds of combos. 9x18 with a 24 foot aisle is the most common. 8.5’ for compact cars. But in my locality, if you decease the aisle width, the width of the spot increases. A 20’ aisle requires 10’ wide spaces.
And angled parking the stripe is much longer than 18’ but you have to make sure it fits a 9x18 rectangle. I’ve seen some engineers make the stripe 18’ and I’m like noooooo!!! Not going to work
Edit: and planning also requires a certain number of spots for a certain size and type of building. But parcels are only but so big. So that is likely why they put in all the compact car spaces. To get the required number of spaces.
It could be that they did not properly allocate for ADA spaces - when that happens the added ADA goes in or gets bigger and the regular parking spots get smaller, they rarely remove a spot and never enlarge the parking area.
That should be checked and approved before the plans are approved. That would stand out like a sore thumb.
What I could see happening is them drawing them all compact size or maybe even smaller and labeling the plans as the correct size. I don’t think anyone whips out a scale anymore to check.
Edit - also if the lot is old, say from the 1960s it could have been done before any regs were in place. We have some crazy lots striped any which way. They are grandfathered in. But if you try to change the striping in any way, it must be brought up to code - which also now includes landscaped islands. So nobody does that. Just restripe it exactly the same
I know ClassicMom98 is a fellow engineer, and like her, I’m betting that there are municipal ordinances and that ADA spaces were accommodated in the layout - and that someone, perhaps intentionally, striped the lot with narrower spaces. And that the lot was restriped properly during some sort of improvement project or repaving, and the ordinances were enforced when that happened.
And as I take my mother to medical appointments, it annoys me how many medical offices and facilities are not ADA accessible. Like the recent visits to an orthopedic surgeon, that doesn’t have examination rooms that allow for wheelchair access. “Oh, we just speak to the patients in the waiting room if we can’t get the wheelchair into the examination room.” Umm, as a group of orthopedic surgeons, don’t you have a lot of patients with limited mobility/in wheelchairs?
Off topic but reminds me how U-M “enlarged” The Big House to accomodate over 107,000 screaming Wolverines. They just painted the numbers on the bench seating closer together. The problem, of course, is that the fans, like cars, are not getting any smaller.
We had that issue with our local courthouse - it did have ADA parking but it was across the street in a 3 story parking garage while the courthouse supporting staff were allowed to park right in front. Finally fixed that but made a mess doing it and all the courthouse staff (who were not disabled) threw an absolute fit because it took them longer to swipe in when they had to walk across a 4 lane street at a light.
I get annoyed when I am sitting in public (waiting room, airport gate, etc.) or standing in line and someone decides to tell me his ( it is always a man) political opinions, lecturing me as if I need to have things explained to me. Who asked you?
As I just booked airline tickets, it brings to mind today’s “thing that annoys me”.
People who put their long hair over the back of their seat.
Or people that keep pushing their feet against the back of the seat. I, surprisingly, don’t care if a kid is kicking it, as kids wiggle. What gets me about both the hair and the pushing is how oblivioius the people are about personal space and those around them. And, God help them if they put a bare foot into my space. I’m not even freaked out by feet, but it’s just the audacity of the situation.
People who sing along with the radio. Mostly my H and mostly when we’re trapped in the car, but I’m sure it would annoy me if others did it and elsewhere. I want to listen to the professional singers who recorded the music not your amateur rendition. Singing along when alone is great. A group of people all singing along can also be fun. But just one person singing louder than the song. No.
Ok, going through this week’s mail I have two things to add:
People who do not give important entities forwarding addresses. I can understand not doing it with junk mail types but we have been in this house for just over 11 years now and we are still getting investment statements and tax corespondence for the previous owners. At this point I have totally stopped forwarding to their forwarding address (after this long who knows if they’re even there anymore?) and returning to sender with a note that they no longer live here, a strategy which seems to have met with varying success in stopping further mail.
Realtors who send things like “let us sell your house for you” to my husband’s name only. Now, I know that they will not know who actually paid for the house (spoiler, it was me), but they CAN see that the title deed is registered to both of us…with my name first. This just seems like blatant sexism. There is exactly one who sends it to both of us and the rest are addressed to my husband only. Guess who will be making the decision to hire the realtor when it is actually time to sell?
I flew today and was reminded me of something that really annoys me…when the person sitting behind you pulls on your seatback to adjust their position or get up. If the person is older or it seems like they really need that leverage, I’m more understanding but it’s still nice if they acknowledge they’ve disturbed you. I will admit that I might have been in my 30s before I realized how annoying this could be so maybe some people just don’t know.
This reminded me of an annoying thing my mother-in-law does during visits. First thing in the mornings, she gets on her social media and reads EVERYTHING out loud. Every. Single. Post. She’s reading it to no one because no one responds. It goes on for 30-45 minutes. I need to ease into my mornings with the appropriate amount of silence, and this is like nails on a chalkboard to me. On Sundays, when she gets the newspaper, she reads that out loud too. I usually end up leaving the room.
Oh yeah - I am a quiet first thing in the morning person, and someone wanting to talk does not make me happy. Chomping cereal loudly, especially with mouth open, is annoying too.
Humming I can stand, but a certain tone of whistling drives me crazy. There is a scene in I think it’s a Kill Bill movie, where the actress is whistling while walking down a hallway. I want to kill her!
Certain kid screams evoke something similar in me. Most I can stand, but there is a certain tone/volume that just grates on my nerves.
