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Hospitals and other health care facilities have specialized transportation needs, unlike any other land use.
Hospitals, medical/professional office buildings, clinics, and other health care facilities are high parking and traffic generators. Visitors/patients, physicians, and staff have different parking and traffic needs that must be addressed individually.
The ideal hospital or medical / professional office building has the following attributes:
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Safe, efficient, and adequate vehicular access, egress, and on-site circulation |
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Separate and direct access from an arterial roadway to the emergency department, unencumbered by other traffic |
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Enough spaces to adequately accommodate peak parking demands |
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Good distribution of spaces, so spaces are provided where they are needed |
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Appropriate management of visitor / patient, physician, and staff parking, which does not overly rely on enforcement |
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Direct, clear, vehicular access to the main hospital entrance and direct connections to visitor parking areas |
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Provision for valet pick-up and drop off at the main hospital entrance |
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Appropriate number and placement of handicapped parking, in accordance with ADA regulations |
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Clear way-finding/signage |
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Adequate queuing space at hospital driveways |
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Good access to public transportation |
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Adequate regulatory signage and pavement markings |
Few hospitals are ideal. Common problems are:
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Too few parking spaces |
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Insufficient spaces allocated to specific user groups |
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Too many motorists circulate within parking lots and garages searching for too few vacant parking spaces |
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Spillover traffic and parking into adjacent residential neighborhoods |
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Poor parking lot layout and design |
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Poor parking garage access / egress / layout / design |
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Local zoning ordinances do not reflect actual parking demands |
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Parking regulations are difficult to enforce |
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Insufficient numbers, and inappropriate location, of handicapped parking spaces |
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Employees must park off-site and be shuttled to the campus, due to parking shortages |
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Too few staff use public transportation or carpool to work |
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Need to provide valet parking or stacked parking due to parking space shortages |
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Over-reliance on poor signage |
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Vehicle/pedestrian conflicts |
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Traffic congestion at the hospital driveways and on adjacent public streets |
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