I pit college campus parking

The BBQ Pit
21

[QUOTE=dangermom]
Couldn’t have been Berkeley. Berkeley hasn’t got enough parking to let faculty park there. There are some spots for Nobel prize winners, and a few that the ASUC voted themselves, and a few other random spots, but on the whole you’d better walk or something, 'cause you’re not parking.
[/QUOTE]

Ah, but it most certainly was. Clark Kerr was famous for many quotes, but I think his parking one will always be remembered. He said something more like “The chancellor’s job has come to be defined as providing parking for faculty, sex for the students, and athletics for the alumni.”

[QUOTE=Captain C]
Yeah, all of these complaints seem valid. They wouldn’t even let me park where I wanted, and I worked for parking services for 3 1/2 years. ducks and runs
[/QUOTE]

Let me guess, were you at MY Michigan? Like others report, I pay around $500 for a parking permit, also known as a hunting permit. It promises me no space, just the chance to park in one if I should happen to find one.

I think the parking problem is no mystery. People expect, when they walk across campus, to enjoy sights like trees, frolicking squirrels, and dirty hippies playing hackysack. They may gripe about parking, but ultimately they don’t want their buildings completely surrounded by concrete parking lots and multistory parking structures.

Campuses can take some steps to provide more parking, and some do, but I don’t think it’s a big priority. I believe some of them are happy to let tight parking be a disincentive for driving cars on or near campus. My university has invested loads of money in commuter lots, bus service, and special contracts with the city bus authority so that more people can park elsewhere for cheap or free and ride in at no cost. That doesn’t work for everyone, of course, which is why I grudgingly pay my $500 and join the There Isn’t Enough Goddamn Parking Bitching Society.

22

Why do you hate sports so much Una Persson?

/runs

23

[QUOTE=ZipperJJ]
I’m pretty sure that my alma mater, Kent State, didn’t add more parking because they made more money renting out dorm rooms and having people on campus over the weekends then they did paying for parking lots that would be empty half the day and over the summer. They were really big on making sure KSU wasn’t a “commuter school” and made it pretty tough for us commuters. The biggest thing was the lack of “snow days” - I had to drive out there in some pretty treacherous conditions.

[/QUOTE]

And the Ohio school nearby that I attended *was *(is?) a commuter school. Only 14% of the student population lived on campus. We had two parking garages (although you risked your life and/or paint job parking in one of them due to chunks of falling concrete) and extensive surface lots. Parking passes were a reasonable $30/quarter IIRC.
People still complained about parking.

24

[QUOTE=dangermom]
Couldn’t have been Berkeley. Berkeley hasn’t got enough parking to let faculty park there. There are some spots for Nobel prize winners, and a few that the ASUC voted themselves, and a few other random spots, but on the whole you’d better walk or something, 'cause you’re not parking.
[/QUOTE]

Kind of sounds like King’s. The professors alone could probably fill the lot. As far as student parking goes, we’re basically told “Unless you really, really need, it, don’t bother applying.” There’s only about a couple dozen spots total for 1000 students and staff. Thankfully, it’s near downtown, so local bus service is decent, and it’s associated with Dalhousie which runs a few shuttles to and from areas with a lot of student renters. On the whole, I was glad I didn’t have a car.

(One of my friends, who lives about an hour away taking the highway, did get permission to park there. Unfortunately, he got the permit the day after being ticketed for illegally parking on a nearby street.)

25

This is literally one of the reasons I quit going to college- if you didn’t get there at 7 a.m., you’d be parking on some residential street ten blocks away.

26

I loved the little brochure we got with our parking permit at LaGrange College - it stated very clearly that the permit did not entitle you to a parking space; it entitled you to look for one.

27

[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
My only choice if I didn’t want to break the law was to park at some local business and walk into campus.
[/QUOTE]

Which, since parking is for customers only…

28

[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
My only choice if I didn’t want to break the law was to park at some local business and walk into campus.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the businesses around my campus have started engaging tow truck drivers to sit in the parking lots when classes start. Anyone observed parking there and crossing the street to campus is towed.

Of course, I work for a university that made the following announcement:

The consturction of this parking garage will alleviate many of the parking concerns on campus. The parking garage will house 700 vehicles, and will be situated on the 1000 vehicle parking lot F.

I was never able to figure out how 700 is better than 1000. Then again, I was always a crappy math student.

29

I’d considered creating this thread a while back. Parking at my university is generally accepted to be fucked. I park in the south side lots since every single one of my classes are on the side. To cross from those lots to the campus, one must not only jay walk across two streets(crossing at the intersections(not lighted), of which there are two spaced really far away, is just an excuse to get mowed over by a turning car), but also cross a very active train track. One of the train’s favorite thing’s to do, just as a laugh, is to stop, right across the tracks in front of campus. After 5-10 minutes of this, when people are really late for their classes, they start climbing over the train. Another warning gets issued, but it won’t stop them. As the train passes through campus, it slows and blows its whistle. At that, there’s a last minute flurry of train dodgers. It really gets your adrenaline goiing. :eek:
-Lil

30

[QUOTE=scr4]
I guess they assume at least 2/3 of the students live on-campus, or close enough to campus that they don’t need to drive to class. Which seems to be a reasonable assumption in most universities I’m familiar with. As for faculty and staff, most of them families, and/or do not work full-time, and therefore have greater need for parking space.
[/QUOTE]

Pretty much my thought as well. The school I went to had a pretty big campus, and I walked/biked everywhere. Walk, buy a bike, look up the bus routes, and give yourself enough time.

The OP’s situation does seem extreme. The school definitely should inform/accommodate instructors. But 1/2 mile doesn’t exactly strike me as a death march. A little less than I do 4 times a day on either side of the train.

31

Wow, am I the only one who got a free parking pass at school?

Of course, there still weren’t enough spots and many spots involved parking up to a mile away from the academic buildings.

32

One problem is that older campuses were designed back when most students did NOT have a car. Now they are playing catch-up, made worse by students showing up in their massive SUVs. Add in the fact that it is sexier to pay for a new classroom than a parking lot, and you get the problems.

The lot I used as faculty/staff reserved super special was designed with a 130% occupancy ratio. If you left for lunch, you were screwed.

33

I’m curious about those complaining about parking problems: are you a student, and if so, why do you live so far from campus that you need a car to get there? Wouldn’t it be better socially and academically to live closer? I thought most students were glad to move away from their parents and live with (or close to) friends. Universities typically have on-campus housing as well as reasonably priced apartments nearby.

Although I completely sympathize with Una’s predicament, that seems unacceptable in an educational institution.

34

[QUOTE=scr4]
I’m curious about those complaining about parking problems: are you a student, and if so, why do you live so far from campus that you need a car to get there? Wouldn’t it be better socially and academically to live closer? I thought most students were glad to move away from their parents and live with (or close to) friends. Universities typically have on-campus housing as well as reasonably priced apartments nearby.

Although I completely sympathize with Una’s predicament, that seems unacceptable in an educational institution.
[/QUOTE]

Many universities do NOT have housing for all students on campus. The University of California system, for example, I think covers less than half of the population. I was fortunate to have 4 years of housing in college, and over time I have learned how lucky I was that my university provided that opportunity.

Example: Apartments in walking distance of UCLA are pretty pricey. You can save a ton of money by living further away, and then you depend on the bus or driving.

35

The first two years of my undergrad career, the parking passes were free. This was fantastic except there was absolutely no parking anywhere. And the school was in the middle of “Old Town” La Verne, which means there was no parking on the streets surrounding the school–they were reserved for residents or businesses. And the police in La Verne had nothing better to do than enforce parking regulations (the entire city was pretty insane about parking. You had to buy a special permit to park on the street anywhere in the city after dark).

Then after two years, they began to charge $30. This was a massive pain in the ass, but we sucked it up. As far as I know, there were never any plans to improve the parking situation. I ended up getting in the habit of getting there at about 7 in the mrning, even though sometimes I didn’t have class until late in the afternoon (I worked on campus and spent time in the library). It was awful all around.

Now I pay $120 for a parking permit, and it is heavily, heavily enforced here. Fortunately, if I time it just right, sacrifice to the right Gods, and do a little dance, I can generally get a pretty decent spot that isn’t too incredible far from my building. But I’m just lucky because my building happens to be near a decent-sized lot. If I spent most of my time in any other building on campus, I’d be more or less fucked.

36

The shortage of parking I can live with. What gives me a hard time is the lack of variety in college and unversity names, and more importantly, in parking lot names: in the north of the province, Cambrian College / Confederation College, and Laurentian University / Lakehead University; in the south-west of the province, University of Waterloo / University of Western Ontario / University of Windsor.

For example, one fine winter night my vehicle would not start due to the cold and a poor battery. I called the CAA, and asked them to send a booster vehicle to the Hagey Hall parking lot at the University of Waterloo. After popsicling for half an hour, I called again to ask what was taking them so long. They replied that they were there, in the lot, looking for me. That’s when I realized that I was in the Huron Flats parking lot at the University of Western Ontario. Fuckitn-fuckity-fuckity-why-couldn’t-they-just-give-me-a-handicap-permit-'cause-I’m-obviously-mentally-disabled!

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[QUOTE=scr4]
I’m curious about those complaining about parking problems: are you a student, and if so, why do you live so far from campus that you need a car to get there?
[/QUOTE]

  1. Due to finances, many students live with their parents and commute;
  2. For those students who do wish to live on-campus, there are not enough rooms;
  3. On-campus accomodation usually means dorm or frat life, which is grossly unacceptable to many students who prefer a more civilized environment;
  4. Many students (particularly mature and part-time students) have lives that include off-campus jobs, spouses and children, and as such must use a vehicle;
  5. Many students simply enjoy living in a full community, rather than an artificial university community, and enjoy living in an environment that is different than their school/work environment.
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[QUOTE=Muffin]

  1. Due to finances, many students live with their parents and commute;
    [/quote]

And still afford to own and operate a car? OK, I guess that’s possible, if housing is particularly expensive.

So the complaint is lack of rooms, not lack of parking?

In what way is dorm life uncivilized? I think of myself as quite civilized and I enjoyed dorm life.

Well, I can understand why someone with a family may not be able to afford a large enough house/apartment close to the campus. What percentage of students in your school do you think have families?

But if it’s just a matter of getting to an off-campus job, why do they need to also drive to class? Or are we also talking about parking shortages for campus housing?

What are some things that a “full community” offers, that a university environment does not?

39

Pity poor ECU. We have horrible parking in a town built on reclaimed swampland. Which means that all of the soil around here is sandy and loves to flood. Which means we can’t build a parking garage.

At least that’s the line they’ve been feeding us for at least ten years. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know.

(The town is swampy and flood-prone, so maybe it is true. I don’t know. I park at the public library and walk two blocks to campus. I don’t tell anyone but good friends where I park so that I can keep my free close-to-campus secret.)

40

[QUOTE=scr4]
And still afford to own and operate a car? OK, I guess that’s possible, if housing is particularly expensive.
[/QUOTE]
I see your location as “Alabama”, so I’m guessing this is a regional difference. Out in CA, housing easily costs 2-3x as much as many other places, but car prices are roughly the same.

Obviously the reason that universities don’t invest in parking is that very few people consider parking when choosing a university.