Pick how many cars park side by side and the biggest of them. You get the driveway width to park and open every door on the paving, what the street entrance may be, the grade, and a carport over them.
Driveway size
23′ wide × 22′ deep to park 2 carsevery door opens onto the paving · at the street 9–24′ wide · a carport 23′ × 22′, 7′ clear
Quick answer: to park two SUVs side by side and open every door onto the paving, a driveway needs 23′ × 22′; one sedan needs 13′ × 21′. That is each car’s width plus 36″ beside it, Amarr’s rule for a garage. Where it meets a state highway, New York’s DOT allows 9–24′ (9–12′ if the driveway is over 50′ long) and Texas caps it at 24′. A carport over the same cars is the same size, 7′ clear for cars and 8′ for a pickup.
How to use the driveway and carport size calculator
- Pick how many cars park side by side, one, two or three, and the biggest of them.
- Add the driveway’s length and how much it climbs if you want its grade checked.
- Read the parking pad, what the entrance may be at the street, the grade, and the carport for the same cars.
The rules behind the numbers
Room to open the doors
Amarr, the garage door maker: leave “at least 36 inches … between cars so that you can open their doors”. The calculator gives each car 36″ on both sides, so every door opens onto the paving instead of the lawn, and 36″ past the car’s nose to walk round it. The cars are the garage size calculator’s: compact 16 × 6′, sedan 18 × 6½′, SUV or van 19 × 7′, and a full-size pickup at Ford’s F-150 SuperCrew figures (231.7 × 79.9″). Everything is rounded up to whole feet.
Where it meets the street
New York State DOT’s residential driveway standard: “Select a preferred driveway width ranging from 9 ft to 24 ft for driveways 50 ft or less in length and 9 ft to 12 ft for driveways longer than 50 ft.” Texas DOT: “The width of a private residential driveway shall not exceed 24 feet”. Both apply where a driveway meets a state highway; a city or county sets its own for its streets, on its driveway permit. A three-car pad therefore narrows to 24′ or less at the entrance.
How steep
New York State DOT again: “In urban areas, the maximum grade is 8% (1 inch per foot). In rural areas, the maximum grade is 12% (1.5 inches per foot).” The grade is the climb divided by the length.
A carport
The same footprint as the parking pad, and clear height for the car: 7′ for cars and 8′ for a pickup, the garage door heights door maker Clopay gives for them.
Driveway width by cars and vehicle
| Biggest vehicle | 1 car | 2 cars | 3 cars | Depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compact | 12′ | 21′ | 30′ | 19′ |
| Sedan | 13′ | 22′ | 32′ | 21′ |
| SUV or van | 13′ | 23′ | 33′ | 22′ |
| Pickup | 13′ | 23′ | 32′ | 23′ |
Width to park side by side with every door open on the paving; depth for one car and 3′ to walk past its nose. Only driving through? New York’s DOT lets a driveway be as narrow as 9′.
Three worked examples
Two SUVs side by side. A 23′ × 22′ pad, 9–24′ wide at the street, and a 23′ × 22′ carport with 7′ clear.
One sedan. 13′ × 21′ to park it and open both front doors onto the paving; 9′ is enough just to drive on.
Three pickups. A 32′ × 23′ pad that narrows to 24′ at the street, and a carport 8′ clear.
Common driveway mistakes
- Sizing for the car, not its doors. A 7′-wide SUV needs about 3′ more on each side to get out.
- A curb cut wider than the permit. Widen after the entrance, into a parking pad.
- A drive too steep. Over New York’s 8% in town, a longer or curving drive lowers it.
- A carport too low for a pickup. Clopay gives trucks an 8′ door; give the carport the same.
Parking under a roof instead? The free garage size calculator sizes the garage for the same cars, and the garage door size calculator its door. Painting the house to match? Try colors on a photo in the exterior house color visualizer, and plan the garage inside in the free 2D room planner.
Size the garageRead next
- Driveway ideas that upgrade the front of the house
- Front yard landscaping design
- Concrete resurfacing options
Driveway and carport questions
What is the standard driveway width?
There is no national one: cities set their own. Where a driveway meets a state highway, New York’s DOT allows 9–24′ (9–12′ if it is over 50′ long) and Texas caps it at 24′. To park and open every door onto the paving, one car needs about 12–13′ and two about 21–23′.
What is the 2 car driveway width?
About 21′ for two compacts, 22′ for two sedans and 23′ for two SUVs or pickups side by side, with 36″ beside each car to open its doors (Amarr’s rule for a garage).
What is the average driveway width?
A single driveway you only drive on can be as narrow as 9′ (New York’s DOT); a single one you park on and open the doors over is about 12–13′.
What are carport dimensions for 2 cars?
For two SUVs, 23′ wide × 22′ deep with 7′ clear under the beams; for two pickups, 23′ × 23′ with 8′ clear. Carport makers sell widths in whole feet: buy the next size up.
What carport sizes are there?
Single, double and triple carports, sized by width × length in feet. By this calculator: about 12–13′ wide for one car, 21–23′ for two, 30–33′ for three, and 19–23′ long.
How steep can a driveway be?
New York State DOT: 8% at most in towns and cities (1″ per foot) and 12% in the countryside (1½″ per foot).