ADA Parking Lot Striping
In Philadelphia Suburbs, PA

How Many Accessible Spaces Your Lot Needs

The count comes from a table, and the table is calculated per parking facility rather than per site. That distinction catches people out: a property with three separate lots works out the requirement for each one on its own, and the advisory to the standard says so explicitly, because the whole point is that an accessible space has to be near where somebody is actually trying to go.

The scoping requirement runs from one accessible space for a facility of one to twenty-five, up through two for twenty-six to fifty, three for fifty-one to seventy-five, four for seventy-six to one hundred, and onward. Between 501 and 1,000 spaces the requirement becomes two percent of the total, and above 1,000 it becomes twenty plus one for each additional hundred or fraction of a hundred.

Hospital outpatient facilities carry a much higher requirement, ten percent of patient and visitor parking, and other use types have their own scoping. Getting the count right is the cheapest part of this work; discovering it is wrong after a complaint is the expensive part.

Total spaces in the facility	Minimum accessible spaces
1 to 25	1
26 to 50	2
51 to 75	3
76 to 100	4
101 to 150	5
151 to 200	6
201 to 300	7
301 to 400	8
401 to 500	9
501 to 1000	2 percent of total
1001 and over	20, plus 1 for each 100 or fraction over 1000

*2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, Table 208.2. Calculated separately for each parking facility on a site.*

Stall, Aisle, and Route Dimensions

Car parking spaces are ninety-six inches wide at minimum and van parking spaces 132 inches, with an exception permitting a van space at ninety-six inches where its access aisle is itself ninety-six inches wide. Every space is marked to define that width and has an adjacent access aisle.

Access aisles are sixty inches wide at minimum, extend the full length of the spaces they serve, and may not overlap the vehicular way. Where van spaces are angled, the access aisle goes on the passenger side. Signs identifying accessible spaces carry the International Symbol of Accessibility, van spaces additionally carry a van accessible designation, and signs sit at least sixty inches above the finished floor or ground measured to the bottom of the sign.

One detail surprises almost every owner. The standard requires that access aisles be marked so as to discourage parking in them, and its advisory then states outright that the method and color of marking are not specified by these requirements, though they may be addressed by state or local law. Blue diagonal hatching is a convention, not a federal mandate. What is mandated is that the aisle be marked well enough that nobody parks in it.

Pennsylvania’s Accessibility Route: the Advisory Board, Not the Local Board

Pennsylvania handles accessibility differently from the rest of its construction code, and property owners rarely know this until they need it. Under 34 Pa. Code Section 403.122(j), a local board of appeals may not rule on requests for extensions of time, variances, or appeals relating to the accessibility requirements of the Uniform Construction Code. The Secretary holds the exclusive power to grant modifications and extensions of time and to decide issues of technical infeasibility.

Those requests go to the Accessibility Advisory Board under Section 403.142, which reviews applications and advises the Secretary. The Department also retains jurisdiction over the accessibility chapter of the code until a municipality employs or contracts with a code administrator certified as an accessibility inspector.

That matters commercially. If your property has a genuine technical infeasibility, an older site where a compliant route cannot be built without disproportionate work, the route to relief is a state process rather than a conversation with the township. Knowing which door to knock on is worth a great deal when a deadline is running.