Event parking: how many cars fit – and is it enough?

The first safety problem starts on the road

When many visitors arrive by car, an undersized car park rarely shows itself on the field. It shows at the entrance. If the entry processes fewer vehicles than arrive in the busiest hour, traffic backs up onto the public road – where emergency routes, buses and residents end up in the same queue, long before the event begins.

“How many cars fit?” is therefore only half the plan. Just as important: is that enough for the expected attendance? Can cars get in quickly enough? And how does the site empty after the event?

All figures in this article are planning assumptions drawn from guidelines and published practice, not measurements. They do not replace agreement with the authorities and fire service, nor a site check. Legal references are German.

Planning basics: bays, aisles, ring road

The German reference guideline for parking layouts is EAR 23 (FGSV). Temporary sites with marshals often use smaller dimensions. For outline planning of a field, these values are a sound starting point – the permitting authority has the final say.

Element	Planning value	Basis
Car bay with marshals	2.50 × 5.00 m, 90°	Planning application, garden show 2022
Aisle between rows	6.0 m (forward parking)	Planning application, garden show 2022
Accessible bay	3.50 × 5.00 m	DIN 18040-3
Number of accessible bays	0.5 % of visitors	Places-of-assembly regulations, § 13
Fire access	≥ 3.0 m wide, 3.5 m high, 10 t axle load, 16 t gross	Model guideline on fire service areas, DIN 14090
Coach/HGV turning	circle with 12.5 m outer radius	§ 32d StVZO
Density in practice	roughly 300–450 cars per hectare	published plans, incl. 630 cars on 1.5 ha

This leads to a simple layout, which MOVETOS OPS also uses:

• Margin of 1.5 m to the boundary fence or ditch.
• Perimeter row along every edge, accessed from the ring road.
• Ring road 6.0 m wide: it allows two-way traffic and keeps the required 3.0 m clear for the fire service even if a vehicle breaks down.
• Double rows inside – two bay depths plus an aisle. On irregular sites, the angle and offset of the rows make a large difference to capacity.
• Spine road per entrance, 7.0 m wide (two 3.5 m lanes) across the site: queuing space before the check point, distribution to the aisles and fire access in one.

On unsurfaced ground, ring and spine roads need trackway panels: at one large festival in 2023, around 15 l/m² of rain halted admission.

Coaches and motorhomes

Coaches and motorhomes need their own lanes, entering and leaving forwards. Planning values are 4.0 m wide lanes and 14.7 m per coach or 9.5 m per motorhome. The turning circle defined in § 32d StVZO calls for a separate 7.5 m ring. Place this zone at the first entrance so large vehicles avoid the car rows. If overnight stays are allowed, the relevant state camping regulations apply as well.

Entrances

Place the entrance on the highest-capacity adjoining road. From about 150 m of road frontage, separate entry and exit points make sense; otherwise use one entrance in the middle. Pedestrians use their own gate towards the event entrance, apart from vehicles; accessible bays belong next to it.

Estimating demand: is there enough space?

Parking demand follows from a handful of figures:

Spaces = visitors × share arriving by car ÷ occupants per car + reserve

These values depend on event, location and public transport and must be checked each time. A worked example with typical starting values: 10,000 visitors, 70 % by car, 2.5 people per car and a 10 % reserve give around 3,080 spaces. At 300 to 450 cars per hectare, that means roughly 7 to 10 hectares of parking – plus 50 accessible bays (0.5 %).

The entrance is the bottleneck

What matters is not the daily total but the peak arrival hour. According to the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), one entry lane handles around 900 vehicles per hour in free flow, but only about 300 to 400 with payment at a booth. For example: if 1,800 cars arrive in the peak hour at two lanes with payment, at most around 800 are processed – the rest wait. That queue has to fit entirely on site, along the spine roads and queuing lanes before the check point. If it does not, traffic backs up onto the road.

The levers: sell tickets in advance, open more entry lanes, lengthen queuing space.

What to settle beforehand

In Germany, parking spaces count as structures; for temporary grass car parks the local authority decides, so allow 8 to 12 weeks’ lead time. A new access onto a public road is a special use (§ 8a FStrG and state road acts), signage and diversions are ordered under § 45 StVO, and only the police may direct moving traffic (§ 36 StVO). On farmland, agricultural subsidies may be lost if the land is used otherwise for more than 14 consecutive days or 21 days a year during the growing season (§ 12(3) GAPDZV). Soil protection and water protection zones must also be checked.

During the event: occupancy and departure

During the event, fill rows one after another – starting at the gate nearest the entrance – and spot early when an area is filling up, so arriving drivers can be sent on in good time.

Occupancy can be derived from counting at the entry and exit: starting level plus arrivals minus departures. Every count drifts over time, for instance through hidden or double-counted vehicles, so the figure must be easy to correct by hand.

After the event, everyone wants to leave at once; release the whole site in one go and cars block each other. A better approach is departure in blocks: at fixed intervals, release only one block of rows – as large as the exits can process in that time. How many vehicles per lane and hour can actually leave is ultimately limited by the receiving road; agree this figure with the highway authority and the police.

How MOVETOS OPS supports this

Plan (new): you draw the parking area on the site plan. The platform lays out bays, ring road, entrances from the road with queuing space, lanes for coaches and motorhomes, and accessible bays on the walking route to the entrance. It shows how many cars fit, whether that is enough for the permitted attendance, whether arrivals will back up onto the road and how long departure will take. Entrances can be moved on the plan. A list sets out what to clarify before the event – permits, road, fire service, farmland – and the safety concept gains its own “Parking” chapter with a plan.

Monitor (new): the situation view shows in one line how full the parking is and which row fills next. On the map, every row carries the colour of its occupancy (free, filling, almost full, full). Cameras at the entrance count vehicles in and out; the count can be corrected. Alerts report “parking area almost full” and “tailback at the car park entrance”. Until a camera is counting, the platform estimates occupancy from the plan.

Control (new): the platform shows which row fills next so that marshals can direct cars accordingly. After the event it proposes departure in blocks of rows and has a matching announcement ready, which the team triggers manually – the system suggests, a person approves.

Checklist

• Draw the parking area; allow for margin, ring road (6.0 m) and spine roads (7.0 m).
• Fire access: at least 3.0 m wide, 3.5 m high, passable at 16 t.
• Calculate demand from attendance, share by car and occupants per car – document the assumptions.
• Accessible bays (0.5 % of visitors) on the shortest walk to the entrance.
• Check the peak hour against processing per lane and queuing space; sell tickets in advance where possible.
• Coach and motorhome lanes at the first entrance; trackway panels on ring and spine roads.
• Settle permits, special use, traffic orders and farmland issues in good time.
• During the event: fill rows in sequence, count occupancy and correct it.
• Release departure in blocks and agree it with the police and highway authority.