1. Using Table linen as your measurement.

If you are out for a picnic or outdoor concert, bring those size of table linen.

Those table linens are easily access and available in your local rental company.

For example, if you go alone, use 96” round table linen (ideal for 3’ table). If you are a group of 2 use 120” round table linen.

In general, you can reference this chart below

2. Using a car as your measurement

Park a car between you and another group. A typical sedan (such as Toyota Corolla) is 5’10” wide (6’ wide including the side mirrors).

3. Using parking grids

If you are restaurant owner and plan to place furniture on the street, place tables made with seats for 2-4 guests on every other 90 degree parking spaces, and place tables made with 4 seats on the center of parallel parking spaces.

Extend dining area to sidewalk and streets:

A typical restaurant with 2500 square feet enclosed space would require 1000 square feet of operational area (kitchen, storage, preparation etc.) and 1500 square feet of dining area. In a full-service restaurant, 1500 square feet would allow approximately 100 seats. However, with 6 feet social distancing, the available seats inside the restaurant would be about 30-40 seats. Therefore, there is a need to get another 35-45 seats elsewhere to support the restaurants’ financial operations.

If we could let restaurants operate on half of a typical 64-foot roadway within 94-foot right-of-way, it would benefit the main street economy tremendously.

Imaging a scenario where restaurants with 40 feet by 60 feet footprint could extend another 35 feet (15’ sidewalk+8’ parking lane+ one 12’ vehicular lane) to 47 feet (15’ sidewalk+8’ parking lane+ two 12’ vehicular lane). This would help the restaurant to gain another 30-45 seats, adding much needed revenue and providing employment opportunities in the neighborhood.

Side notes: the image above only demonstrate how to utilize the existing indoor seating to outdoors. It does not illustrate the example of 64-foot roadway; 94-foot right of way seating arrangement scenario.

Reuse parking grids as perfect outdoor Market marking:

The parking grid is 8-8.5 feet wide and one person’s shoulder width is two feet wide. Therefore, if each shopper is standing at the parking grid (regardless which direction they turn), the distance between two shoppers will be 6 feet. We do not need extra markings for the customer lines. The parking grids will serve as our natural guideline.

Notes and References: