How to Calculate Parking Ratio

Parking ratio varies depending on the area and local ordinances.

Parking ratio is a measurement that indicates the relationship between the number of parking spaces in a parking lot and the square footage of the associated building. Performing this calculation is necessary when building a parking lot or adding on to an existing lot. This figure helps engineers and builders to plan for enough parking to accommodate the traffic of a public facility. Parking ratio also is taken into consideration in business transactons involving insurance and loans.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator

Instructions

1. Type in the square footage of the gross leasable area of the building or set of buildings to be served by the parking lot. The gross leasable area is the total used floor space, as measured from the outside walls.

2. Press the divide button on your calculator, which is marked with the "/" symbol.

3. Enter the number "1,000" and press the equal (=) button. For instance, if a mall has a gross leasable area of 500,000 square feet, divide 500,000 by 1,000 to get 500.

4. Divide the number of parking spaces by the figure from Step 3 to find the parking ratio. To continue with the previous example, assume that there are 2,000 parking spaces. Therefore, you would divide 2,000 by 500 to get a ratio of 4. This means that there are four parking spaces for every 1,000 square feet of gross leasable area.

References

• All Business: Gross Leasable Area
• American City and County: Calculating Your Parking Needs; John Revell and Richard Rich; May 1, 2001