Preparing Your Parking Lot for the Holiday Season

November is here, which we all know means the holidays are among us! 

If you’re someone who maintains a parking lot – be it a small church parking lot or a large commercial parking lot, you’re bound to see more traffic than usual in the coming months. You might be wondering what you can do at this point in the season to ensure your lot is safe and well-maintained for new and returning visitors. 

Luckily, we’ve got some tips that can help! 

Are Your Parking Lot Lines Visible?

Preparing your parking lot for the holidays starts with one important feature – properly marked parking stalls. These stalls, outlined with bright, fresh paint, are what keep your space in order and make it easy for vehicles to navigate.

The problem is that over time these lines fade from factors like heavy traffic, sun, salt, and more. When this happens, it makes finding a parking spot more difficult. Plus, it causes people to park inefficiently by taking up too much space or parking too close to other vehicles.

For best practice parking lot maintenance, we recommend calling your local parking lot stripers every spring/summer to come in and freshen up your lines (even on the years you don’t seal!). However, if you’re someone who has waited until now to stripe your parking lot – don’t fret! 

Even though striping is most often performed during the warmer, dryer months, don’t be afraid to reach out to your local stripers later in the season. Here at 1-800-STRIPER, we continue to stripe parking lots for our customers as long as the weather permits. 

In fact, there have been seasons where we continued striping for our customers well into December! After all, it’s better to stripe your parking lot late than not at all.

Don’t Forget About Directional Arrows

Parking lot stalls are essential, but directional markings (arrows, stop bars, no parking fire lanes, etc.) are equally just as important. 

These markings serve as a guide to help drivers and pedestrians navigate through a parking lot accordingly. Not only that, but they communicate to each party when to stop, slow down, and where not to enter for safety purposes. 

Making sure your lot has clear signage and markings during the holiday season is crucial – especially since people are in a hurry to get in and out. This doesn’t mean just making sure your lot is plowed and visible, but that your parking lot layout makes sense for those entering and exiting. 

Parking lot stripers can help with this, too. We’d be happy to give you advice to help make your lot more safe and functional. Once your design is perfected, restriping year after year will be a breeze!

Invest in Mobile Order and Pickup Markings 

If there’s anything the last year has taught us, it’s that mobile order and cart-to-curb pickup lanes are becoming sought after benefits that customers love. Whether it’s picking up groceries, fast food, or general shopping needs, people expect this new time-saving option to be available. 

If you’re thinking of offering this assistance during the holiday season, call your striping company to put down clear markings on your pavement. Adding this benefit may call for reconfiguring the design of your parking lot, so you’ll definitely want an expert’s opinion. 

These special markings can also give your business an opportunity to stand out. Ask your striping company to create a custom mobile order stencil that’s unique to your business. You can also designate these spaces by using a contrasting color to attract attention. 

We can’t tell you how many compliments our customers have received on their new and improved pickup areas. So, if you’re offering this service, we encourage you to make it official with some fresh paint. 

Keep Pedestrians Safe with Crosswalks

We’ve talked about how to keep vehicles safe in your parking lot during the holiday rush, but what about pedestrians? 

Adding crosswalks to your parking lot is the key to keeping your visitors safe from moving traffic. These designated stripes help provide a place for people to safely cross the road, lowering the risk of accidents.

In fact, one study found that high-visible crosswalks increased drivers’ daytime yielding by 30-40 percent. This not only kept pedestrians safe but helped make drivers more aware of their surroundings and, in turn, prevented unnecessary accidents. 

So ask yourself, does your crosswalk need a little freshening up to make it more visible, or do you need to add more crosswalks to increase the safety in your parking lot? Whatever the case, both will without a doubt improve the welfare of both pedestrians and drivers. 

Is Your Parking Lot Ready for the Holidays?

When the holiday season comes, we often focus on sprucing up the inside of our businesses. However, after reading this article, we hope it’s shed some light on the outside, too (primarily your parking lot!).

If there’s anything to take away, know that it’s not too late to make your lot safer and more welcoming for your customers. Chances are, little investments like this will give your customers a great first impression and help keep individuals safe and sound. 

Are you interested in starting a franchise? 1-800-STRIPER provides an essential service for any and every community. Check out our territories available so you can start your dream of owning your own business! Contact 1-800-323-4700 or visit 1800striperfranchise.com to learn more.