Guides / Driveways · Updated November 2026

Driveway dimensions, drawn to scale

Widths and slopes from the city and county codes we could read, cars at Mazda's published size. Your town's code decides; call before you pour.

Estimate for planning only, not professional advice. Check the manufacturer’s instructions, your local code and a licensed professional before you buy, build or install. Use at your own risk. Terms.

Short answer

A one-car driveway is 12 ft wide in most of the codes we read, a two-car one 18 to 24 ft. A parking space is 9 × 18 ft. Keep the slope to about 8% near the street and 16% at most on the lot. A circular drive for a CX-5 needs about 38 ft across.

One car: 12 ft wide

Driveway
Mazda CX-5, mirrors out

12 ft is the minimum most cities we read set, and it leaves about 31 in each side of a CX-5’s mirrors to walk past.

Two cars: 20 to 24 ft wide

Driveway
Mazda CX-5, mirrors out

24 ft is the most Truckee and Maricopa County allow in the right-of-way. Belton wants at least 18 ft for two cars.

One car plus a parking pad

Driveway
Mazda CX-5, mirrors out
Parking pad

A 9 × 18 ft pad is Saint Paul’s standard parking space. Saint Paul caps front-yard driveways at 12 ft, so check your zoning before you pave a pad there.

A circular drive: about 38 ft across

Driveway
Mazda CX-5, mirrors out
Island

Mazda gives the CX-5’s curb-to-curb turning radius as 18.4 ft, so the loop’s outside edge needs at least that at full lock: 19 ft here, with a 12 ft lane round a 14 ft island. A bigger car needs more.

Width: what cities allow

Truckee, CA	12 ft minimum, 24 ft maximum in the right-of-way
Maricopa County, AZ	12 ft minimum, 24 ft maximum; wider to match the garage doors if the garage is within 25 ft
Belton, MO	12 ft minimum for one car, 18 ft for two or more, 25 ft maximum
Saint Paul, MN	8 ft minimum; 12 ft maximum in the front yard, up to 4 ft wider than the garage door within 30 ft of it

At the curb, the cut is wider than the drive: the flares add 3 to 6 ft a side in Truckee, and 3 to 5 ft in Martensdale, Iowa, which makes a 24 ft drive a 30 to 34 ft curb cut.

Slope

Salt Lake City, UT	8% from the gutter to the property line, then no more than 16% average to the parking pad
Truckee, CA	2 to 6% in the right-of-way, 16% on the lot; steeper than 10% needs a profile drawing
Martensdale, IA (SUDAS)	10% to the house

Salt Lake City also limits the break-over at the top of a ramp to 10.5% so a car doesn't scrape. Work out a percent with the slope calculator: rise ÷ run × 100.

Turning room

Mazda CX-5 (2026)	36.8 ft circle, 18.4 ft radius
Subaru Forester (2026)	35.4 ft circle, 17.7 ft radius
Honda CR-V (2020)	37.4 ft circle, 18.7 ft radius

Those are the makers' own figures; Ford, Tesla, Toyota and GM's sites refused our reader, so their trucks and cars aren't listed. A turnaround big enough for a fire truck is much bigger: Ross, California asks for a 27 ft inside and 47 ft outside radius, or a T with a 60 ft top.

Pave it

Price it with the driveway cost calculator, then work out the material with the concrete driveway, asphalt or gravel driveway calculator. The strip at the street has its own rules: see driveway aprons.