Photo by Michael Fousert via Unsplash.
Tight Squeeze
Whether you’re driving a Ford F-150 Platinum or a MINI Cooper, an inch matters when it comes to the size of your parking space. Where in Preston Hollow is parking the most spacious? Where are you likely to scratch your ride? We measured.
Give an inch, scrape a mile.
We’re at the northeast corner of Preston-Royal Village when security guard Randy Winchester speeds up in his golf cart and asks about the measuring tape.
“This is private property,” he announces. We exchange phone numbers so he can report the incident to his manager. Nothing nefarious is happening. The measuring tape is being used to document the width of the parking spaces in the lot. The size of the space at Preston-Royal Village? Eight feet, 8 inches, measured from the middle of one yellow stripe to the next. This is the best practice when it comes to measuring, according to David Cossum, director of Sustainable Development & Construction for the City of Dallas. He says that 7 and a half foot stalls may constitute no more than 35 percent of the required parking spaces for any use. In Dallas, the width of a parking space should be 8 feet, 5 inches, for a regular space, and 7 feet, 5 inches, for a compact space.
But when you drive a Ford F-150 Platinum (6 feet, 8 inches, to 7 feet, 2 inches, in width), a Yukon Denali (6 feet, 9 inches wide), a Range Rover (6 feet, 6 inches wide) or even a Lexus 470 (6 feet 2 inches wide), as so many of us neighbors know, size matters.
A recent survey shows the width of parking spaces varies widely.
