Parking Study
Everything from parking demand and shared-parking studies to utilization counts, code reductions, and site layout.
Build the parking you need: right-sized, cost-smart, review-ready.
What a Parking Study Does
What is a parking study?
A parking study — also called a parking analysis — is an engineering study that establishes how much parking a development will actually use, and how that parking should be arranged on the site. It answers two separate questions. The first is the number: how many spaces the project needs at its busiest hour, and how that compares to what the municipal code requires. The second is the layout: how vehicles enter, circulate, park, and exit without conflicting with each other, with pedestrians, or with the street they came from. Which term you hear depends on the reviewer. “Parking analysis” usually describes the overall service, while “parking study” often refers to a specific deliverable such as a demand study, a shared-parking study, or a utilization count.
Do I need a parking study?
The most common trigger is a reviewer asking you to justify your parking count, usually because you are proposing fewer spaces than the code minimum and need to show the demand supports it. Mixed-use projects are the other frequent case: when residential, office, retail, and dining uses share one supply, the site almost never needs the sum of each use’s individual requirement. A Planning & Zoning Commission or Board of Adjustment may also request demand support as a condition of approval, and a new driveway or a reconfigured lot can raise circulation questions that a study is the cleanest way to answer.
A study is worth running even where nothing forces one. Some Texas cities have reduced or removed their parking minimums, which turns the parking count from a code-compliance question into a business decision — you still have to satisfy your users, your tenants, and your lender, and a demand study is how you land on a defensible number rather than a guess.
How is parking demand calculated?
Demand comes from two sources used together. The first is field data: occupancy and accumulation counts taken at comparable sites across the day and the week, which show how full parking actually gets rather than how full it is assumed to get. The second is national reference rates, primarily the ITE Parking Generation manual and the ULI Shared Parking methodology. We adjust those rates for your site’s land-use mix, size, location, and transit access so the result reflects real use.
Where uses share a supply, the analysis goes a step further and models them by hour. An office peaks during the workday; a restaurant, theater, or church peaks in the evening or on a weekend. Because those peaks land at different times, the shared total is usually well below the sum of the individual requirements, and that difference is often the single largest saving a parking study produces.
Why is the code minimum often the wrong number?
Code ratios are deliberately blunt. A single ratio is applied to an entire land-use category across a whole city, and many were carried forward from older ordinances calibrated to the busiest hour of the busiest day of the year. Applied to a specific site with a specific tenant mix in a specific location, that ratio frequently overstates what the project will ever use.
Overbuilding is not a free hedge. Once drive aisles and maneuvering are counted, a surface stall consumes roughly 300 to 350 square feet, so every unnecessary space takes land that could have been building area, landscaping, or detention. It also adds construction cost, impervious cover, and stormwater volume, and structured parking multiplies the per-space cost several times over. A demand study lets you build to the number your project needs and put the rest of the site to work.
Why Developers and Design Teams Trust Gradient Systematics
One team, one point of contact, from the first parking count to the final agency approval.
We right-size to real demand, not blanket code
We measure the parking your project will actually use across land use, size, time of day, and season, then reconcile it against the code so you build what you need and nothing you don’t.
We handle every data requirement
Field occupancy and accumulation counts, utilization surveys, and agency coordination are all managed by us. We collect the data and stay in contact with the reviewing city throughout.
We deliver analysis that meets every agency requirement
Demand modeling grounded in the ITE Parking Generation manual and the ULI Shared Parking methodology, clear exhibits, and documentation built to answer the reviewer’s questions before they ask them.
We stay with you through approval
We prepare the study, manage the submittal, and stand with you at staff review, Planning & Zoning, and the Board of Adjustment. One point of contact from kickoff to decision.
We reduce your risk early
We identify demand, access, and layout constraints up front, so problems surface in the study, not in a late-stage redesign or a permitting delay.
We scale the scope to your project
Analysis sized to your project, from a focused parking memo to a full shared-parking and circulation study, matched to what your jurisdiction expects.
Parking Studies We Provide
Every project is scoped to what your jurisdiction actually requires, from a focused demand study to a full shared-parking and circulation review.
Parking Demand Study
Quantify peak and typical demand by land use, size, and time of day: the real number your project will use.
Shared Parking Analysis
Model complementary uses that peak at different times (office by day, dining at night) to reduce total spaces. ULI methodology.
Parking Reduction / Justification
Documentation to support a variance or code-reduction request to the city or Board of Adjustment.
Supply vs. Code Reconciliation
Compare required spaces against demanded spaces to justify a reduction, or confirm a surplus.
Utilization / Occupancy Study
Field counts of how full existing lots and garages actually get across the day and week.
Layout, Circulation & Access
Lot and garage configuration, drive aisles, queuing, ADA stalls, and driveway access review.
Management & Operations
Shared-use agreements, phasing, valet/stacking, enforcement, and monitoring strategies.
Multimodal & Curb
Transit, bike, rideshare, and loading/curb demand factored in where they affect parking need.
Parking Layout, Circulation, and Site Access
Getting the parking count right is only half of a parking study. A site can have exactly the right number of spaces and still fail review because vehicles cannot get into them, cannot turn around once inside, or back up onto the street waiting to get in. Circulation is where most site plans actually get sent back.
The figures below are the values most commonly used in practice. Treat them as a starting point, not a standard: stall and aisle dimensions are set by local ordinance and vary from city to city, so we confirm the governing numbers for your jurisdiction before we lay anything out. The accessibility and fire-access requirements are the exception. Those come from federal and model codes and apply regardless of what the zoning ordinance says.
Stalls, drive aisles, and the parking module
The module — a row of stalls, a drive aisle, and the row facing it — is the unit that determines how much parking a site can hold. Angled parking is easier to enter and needs a narrower aisle, but it wastes area at the ends of each row and forces one-way circulation, so it rarely yields more spaces on a rectangular site.
- 9 ft × 18 ft is the most common standard stall, though codes range from 8.5 to 9 ft wide and 18 to 20 ft deep
- 24 ft two-way drive aisle for 90° parking, giving a roughly 60 ft double-loaded module
- 18 ft one-way aisle is typical for 60° angled parking
- Dead-end aisles need a turnaround or extra backing depth, and many cities cap how many stalls one may serve
Entry queuing and stacking
The failure mode reviewers care about most is a queue that backs out of the site and onto the public street. We estimate queue length from arrival rate and service time rather than assuming the code minimum is sufficient, then check that the storage between the right-of-way line and the first internal conflict point can actually hold it.
- Drive-through stacking is measured from the order point, not the window, and the required count is set by local ordinance
- Gated and controlled-access entries need storage sized to the credential or ticket transaction time
- Schools, medical offices, and daycare need dedicated drop-off storage separated from through circulation
- Bypass lanes keep a stalled transaction from blocking the entire entry
Driveway location, spacing, and throat depth
Where the driveway lands governs how the site works. Throat depth — the unobstructed distance between the right-of-way and the first parking stall or intersecting aisle — is the detail most often missed: a driveway that opens immediately into a stall creates a conflict right where entering vehicles are still clearing the street.
If your site takes access from a state-maintained roadway, TxDOT’s Access Management Manual governs spacing. Table 2-2 sets minimum connection spacing on other state highways by posted speed, measured edge of pavement to edge of pavement:
- ≤ 30 mph → 200 ft · 35 mph → 250 ft · 40 mph → 305 ft
- 45 mph → 360 ft · ≥ 50 mph → 425 ft
- Corner clearance, median openings, and left-turn storage are reviewed alongside spacing
Accessible parking and the accessible route
Accessible parking is federal law, not a local preference, and it is checked closely. Under the 2010 ADA Standards, accessible spaces must be on the shortest accessible route to an accessible entrance, and both the space and its access aisle are limited to a 1:48 slope in all directions.
- Counts follow ADA Table 208.2: 1 accessible space for 1–25 total, 2 for 26–50, 4 for 76–100, and 2% of the total from 501–1,000
- One in every six accessible spaces must be van accessible
- Car spaces are 96 in wide minimum with a 60 in access aisle; van spaces are 132 in wide with a 60 in aisle, or 96 in wide with a 96 in aisle
- 98 in vertical clearance at van spaces, their access aisles, and the vehicular route serving them
- In Texas, the 2012 TAS applies, and projects estimated at $50,000 or more must be registered with TDLR for review by a Registered Accessibility Specialist
Fire, service, and loading access
Fire and service access compete with parking for the same pavement, and they win. Catching that conflict during the parking study is far cheaper than losing a row of stalls after the fire marshal comments on the site plan. We check the design vehicle through the site with turning templates rather than assuming the drive aisles are adequate.
- International Fire Code Appendix D requires 20 ft of unobstructed width for fire apparatus access roads
- 26 ft where aerial apparatus access applies, generally buildings with a highest roof over 30 ft
- 13 ft 6 in minimum vertical clearance along those routes
- Trash pickup, delivery trucks, and loading docks are checked against the site’s design vehicle so service movements do not block aisles or stalls
Structured parking: ramps and wayfinding
Garages add a vertical dimension to every circulation question. The ramping system drives the efficiency of the whole structure, and a garage that is hard to read from the driver’s seat will have people circling past open spaces on the upper decks while the lower ones fill.
- Ramps that also carry parking are limited to 1:15 (6.67%) under the International Building Code
- Express ramps without parking can be steeper, with transition slopes at the top and bottom to prevent vehicles bottoming out
- One-way versus two-way ramping changes both the search path and the number of levels required
- Entry and exit capacity, wayfinding, and sight lines at ramp ends are reviewed together, not separately
Standards we work to. Demand from the ITE Parking Generation Manual (6th Edition) and ULI Shared Parking (3rd Edition). Geometry and access from the AASHTO Green Book, the TxDOT Access Management Manual and Roadway Design Manual, the International Building and Fire Codes, and the 2010 ADA Standards as adopted in Texas through the 2012 TAS — all reconciled against the local ordinance, which governs wherever it is more restrictive.
How We Deliver a Parking Study
Five stages, one point of contact. The scope scales to the project, but the order does not change: we settle what the jurisdiction requires before we collect anything, and we look at circulation before the site plan is locked.
- 01
Scoping and code review
We start with your jurisdiction, not your site plan. We confirm the governing ordinance and whether it sets a minimum ratio at all, identify the reduction or variance path if you need one, establish which department reviews the study and whether a PE seal is required on the submittal, and find out what that reviewer expects to see. Scoping against the actual review process is what keeps a study from being rejected on a technicality.
You get: A written scope and fee you approve before any work begins.
- 02
Field data collection
Where the analysis needs real observations, we collect them: occupancy and accumulation counts at your site or at comparable sites, taken across the full day and on the days of the week that actually matter for your land uses. We schedule counts to avoid holidays, school breaks, and other atypical periods that would distort the peak, and we document the conditions so the reviewer can see the data is representative.
You get: Count data and utilization profiles showing how demand builds and peaks by hour and by day.
- 03
Demand analysis
We build the demand estimate from the field data together with national reference rates, primarily the ITE Parking Generation Manual and, for sites with more than one use, the hour-by-hour ULI Shared Parking methodology. Rates are adjusted for your land-use mix, size, location, and transit access. We then set that number against the code requirement so the gap, in either direction, is explicit.
You get: A peak demand figure, a shared-parking table where uses overlap, and a direct comparison against the code minimum.
- 04
Layout and circulation review
The number then has to fit the site. We check the parking module against the available area, review drive aisles and dead ends, size entry queuing so it does not spill onto the street, and confirm driveway spacing and throat depth. Accessible space counts and placement, fire apparatus access, and service and loading movements are checked in the same pass, because all of them compete for the same pavement.
You get: Comments and recommendations on the site plan, early enough to act on before the layout hardens.
- 05
Report, submittal, and hearing support
We document the analysis in the format your reviewer expects, with exhibits that make the demand case legible to people who are not engineers, and seal it where the jurisdiction requires a PE seal. We submit it, respond to review comments, and stay on the project through the decision, including presenting at staff review, Planning & Zoning, or the Board of Adjustment.
You get: A submittal-ready study, responses to every review comment, and someone in the room at the hearing.
How long it takes. The schedule depends mostly on one thing: whether the analysis needs new field counts, and if so, how many days of data the reviewer expects. A focused code and demand review moves quickly; a district-wide utilization study or a shared-parking analysis spanning several land uses takes longer. We give you a schedule with the scope, before you commit, and if you have a submittal deadline, tell us early and we will work to it where the data and the agency's process allow.
Project Types We Support
Gradient provides parking studies for a wide range of development types across Texas.
Mixed-Use
Shared-parking optimization
Retail / Shopping Center
Demand & circulation
Multifamily / Residential
Resident & guest parking
Office
Peak-demand & shared parking
Medical / Hospital
Patient, staff & emergency access
Restaurant / Entertainment
Peak & event demand
School / University
Daily & event demand
Religious Institutions
Peak-service demand
Industrial / Warehouse
Employee & truck staging
Hotel / Hospitality
Guest & event parking
Municipal / Downtown
District & on-street utilization
Transit-Oriented / Special
Multimodal demand
Thinking about a parking study? Let's talk through your project.
Request a FREE Parking ConsultationParking Study and Analysis Services Across Texas
Gradient Systematics provides parking studies across Texas, from major metros to fast-growing suburbs: the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and beyond.
Parking requirements vary widely by city. Some Texas cities still enforce traditional minimum ratios, while others have reduced or removed parking minimums in recent years and shifted toward demand-based parking. We know which framework applies where, and we scope each study to the local code and reviewer expectations, which avoids unnecessary revisions during review.
We ground demand in trusted references, including the ITE Parking Generation manual and the ULI Shared Parking methodology, alongside regional data where available. For projects that need municipal review, a variance, or a Board of Adjustment presentation, we serve as your single point of contact from scoping through approval.
Nationwide Reach. Gradient Systematics is licensed to provide services in 16 states. While our deepest experience is in Texas and DFW, we support development teams with parking study needs across multiple jurisdictions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Parking Study Essentials
What is a parking study (parking analysis)? +
What is a parking demand study? +
What is the difference between a parking study and a parking analysis? +
Do I need a parking study for my project? +
You likely need a parking study if any of the following apply:
- The city has asked you to justify your parking count, or you are seeking a reduction from the code minimum
- Your project combines multiple uses that could share parking
- A reviewer, Planning & Zoning Commission, or Board of Adjustment has requested parking demand support
- You want to avoid overbuilding parking to save construction cost and land
Not sure? We offer a free consultation to tell you quickly. Send us your project details or call (972) 926-3480.
What is a shared parking analysis? +
How is parking demand calculated? +
Can a parking study reduce the number of spaces I have to build? +
Who prepares a parking study, and does it need a PE seal? +
How long does a parking study take, and how much does it cost? +
Parking Studies by Development Type
Do I need a parking study for a mixed-use development? +
Do I need a parking study for a retail or shopping center? +
Do I need a parking study for a multifamily or apartment development? +
Do I need a parking study for an office development? +
Do I need a parking study for a medical office or hospital? +
Do I need a parking study for a restaurant, bar, or entertainment venue? +
Do I need a parking study for a hotel? +
Do I need a parking study for a school or university? +
Do I need a parking study for a religious institution? +
Parking Requirements by Region
Parking requirements are set locally and differ from city to city. Some jurisdictions apply traditional minimum ratios, while others have reduced or removed minimums in favor of demand-based parking. Below are common questions by region. We confirm the exact requirement for your jurisdiction before scoping a study.
How do parking requirements vary across Texas? +
Parking requirements in Texas are set by each city, so they vary widely. Some cities apply traditional minimum parking ratios by land use, while others have reduced or removed minimums in recent years and shifted toward demand-based, market-driven parking. Because the framework differs from city to city, we scope every study to the specific code and reviewer expectations that apply to your site.
Gradient can confirm the applicable requirement, the reduction or variance path if one is needed, and the reviewing department before the study begins.
What are the parking requirements in Dallas–Fort Worth? +
Parking requirements vary across the Dallas–Fort Worth municipalities, with Dallas, Fort Worth, and each surrounding suburb maintaining its own standards and reduction process. Many North Texas cities allow parking reductions supported by a demand or shared-parking study, and some have updated their codes as part of broader parking-reform efforts.
We can help determine the current standard for your city and whether a study will support the parking count you need.
What are the parking requirements in Austin? +
Austin removed minimum parking requirements citywide, so most developments are no longer required to provide a set number of spaces. That makes right-sizing a business decision rather than a code-compliance one: a demand study helps you provide enough parking for your users and lenders without overbuilding.
What are the parking requirements in Houston? +
Houston sets its own parking standards and has removed or reduced parking minimums in several areas, including Midtown and East Downtown (EaDo), where market-based parking applies. Elsewhere, traditional minimums may still apply, and reductions or shared parking can be pursued through the applicable ordinance.
Send us your project location and we will confirm what applies.
What are the parking requirements in San Antonio? +
San Antonio sets parking requirements through its Unified Development Code (UDC), which includes provisions for reductions, shared parking, and modified requirements in certain districts. The right approach depends on your specific location and use.
Send us your project details and we will confirm the applicable requirement.
Tell Us About Your Parking Project
We'll help identify the right study scope, data needs, and the fastest path to approval.