Mirrors
Parking Garage Mirrors: Ramp & Blind-Corner Coverage
Cojo
Invalid Date
6 min read
Parking garages compress traffic into tight corners, ramp turns, and column-blocked sight lines that street-level lots do not face. The right mirror placement at each of these conditions reduces near-miss frequency without expanding the structure. The four locations that nearly always justify mirrors in a multi-level garage are ramp turns, corner turns at column-blocked sight lines, entry/exit drives, and pedestrian-vehicle conflict zones at stair towers and elevator banks.
A parking garage typically needs convex mirrors at four locations: ramp turns (where ascending and descending traffic crosses sight lines), 90-degree corner turns at column-blocked aisles, entry and exit drives at the street interface, and pedestrian-vehicle conflict zones at stair towers and elevator banks. Standard outdoor garage mirrors are 30-inch polycarbonate UV-stabilized units; covered-deck garage interiors can use 30-inch acrylic for higher optical clarity. Cojo installed two 30-inch outdoor convex mirrors at a Beaverton 4-level parking garage ramp turn in March 2026, paired with one 30-inch acrylic at the level-2 column-blocked corner turn.
A garage ramp where ascending and descending aisles cross sight lines is the single most consequential mirror location in a parking garage. Drivers entering the ramp turn from one direction cannot see oncoming traffic from the other side until they are well into the turn. A 30- to 36-inch convex mirror placed on the outside-radius wall of the turn, mounted at 9 to 10 feet to mirror center, gives drivers cross-traffic visibility from the start of the approach.
Placement specs:
For ramps where the inside-radius wall is also a structural column, a second mirror on the inside-radius wall covers the opposite direction of approach. Two-mirror ramp packages are standard at multi-level garages with high traffic.
Garages have load-bearing columns at regular intervals (typically every 20 to 30 feet), and these columns block sight lines at 90-degree aisle turns. A convex mirror on the wall opposite the column provides cross-traffic visibility around the column-induced blind spot.
Placement specs:
Quarter-dome mirrors can substitute for full convex at some indoor garage corners where one direction of approach is the only concern (a wall behind the corner blocks the third direction). The quarter dome's 90-degree coverage is appropriate for that geometry.
The transition from public street to garage interior is a high-volume pedestrian-vehicle conflict zone. Drivers exiting the garage onto the street need cross-pedestrian-traffic visibility on the sidewalk; entering drivers need cross-vehicle-traffic visibility on the street.
Placement specs:
For exit drives onto a busy public street, a second mirror covering the opposite direction of street approach is standard. Both mirrors should be visible from the typical exit-driver position.
Pedestrians exiting a stair tower or elevator bank into a parking garage are momentarily disoriented and looking for their car. Vehicles approaching the stair tower from a drive aisle have limited time to react if a pedestrian steps into the aisle. A convex mirror at the stair-tower exit gives pedestrians cross-vehicle-traffic visibility before stepping into the aisle.
Placement specs:
Convex mirrors are not mandated by federal building or life-safety code, but they are routinely cited in:
A typical multi-level garage in Oregon has 4 to 8 mirrors specified at permit issuance: two on the main ramp turn, one to two at column-blocked corner turns per level, two at entry/exit drives, and one to two at stair/elevator pedestrian conflict zones.
Garage mounting is almost always to concrete masonry units (CMU) or solid concrete walls. Anchor selection matters:
For pole-mount installs at garage entry/exit drives, the pole footing should still meet sub-frost-line depth (36 to 48 in) even when the pole is in a covered area, because most garage entry/exit drives are partially weather-exposed.
Industry Baseline Range
| Garage size | Typical mirror count | Total installed cost |
|---|---|---|
| Small (2-level, single-ramp) | 4 mirrors | $2,400 to $4,500+ |
| Medium (3- to 4-level, single-ramp) | 6 to 8 mirrors | $3,800 to $7,500+ |
| Large (5+ level, multi-ramp) | 10 to 14 mirrors | $6,000 to $13,000+ |
Garage mirror packages benefit heavily from multi-mirror mobilization economics -- a 6-mirror package on a single mobilization runs roughly 22 percent below 6 single-mirror call-outs at the same property. 2026 mirror equipment pricing tracked 8 to 14 percent above 2025; install labor in the Portland-metro market tracked 5 to 10 percent above 2025. Property managers planning garage mirror retrofits should batch them into a single visit rather than schedule call-outs over time.
On a Beaverton 4-level parking garage in March 2026, Cojo installed a 6-mirror package:
Total package: $4,800 across 6 mirrors. The garage's annual life-safety review cited the previous-cycle ramp-turn sight line as a deficiency now corrected.
Garage mirrors are most efficiently specced at the original permit cycle or at a major-renovation cycle, when the structural-anchor work batches with other concrete-anchor work. Retrofit packages also benefit from multi-mirror mobilization. Cojo handles garage mirror installs across the I-5 corridor as part of property-management retrofit packages. Contact Cojo for a garage mirror specification.
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