I go to a small (1200) junior college. Parking is a fucking nightmare! Why, because there’s only one lot for students. Oh and every student gets a free parking permit. Inlcuding the ones who live in the dorms. Now here’s the thing both dorms are 2 blocks away from the college and students fucking drive from the fucking dorms to the fucking college! :mad: Meanwhile the administration’s solution (since there’s really no space to expand the parking lot) is to “encourage students to carpool and use public transport”, which is a good idea, but I live in the sticks. I have no other choice but to drive (about 30 min) to school. I try to arrive 15-20 min early to find a parking, but that wasn’t enough today. So I missed for first class for the second time in a row (2 out of 3 so far) since nobody’s allowed in once the door closes. Oh and the faculty has guaranteed parking (if their lot is full they can park in ours :mad: ) and we’re the one paying tuition. What did I start this thread 
? Oh that’s right; “Fuck you able-bodied classmates who feel the need to drive 2 fucking blocks or refuse to take the fucking buss! I hope you fucking get into a fucking car crash and die so there’s more fucking parking (& organs) for people who need it!”
My college had the same problem - inadequate parking and no room to expand. The information sheet presented to you with your parking permit contained this line I have always remembered: “This permit does not entitle you to a parking place. It entitles you to look for one.”
Unfortunately, it just goes downhill from there. Parking was bad at my Junior College as well, and it only got worse when I started going to State. My first year there, I didn’t realize that about 95% of the student population has classes ~9:15 AM. Basically, the parking garages would go from empty to completely full in only five minutes. Back then, I was arriving right after everyone else, so it was really infuriating to be driving in circles looking for a spot, and seeing dozens of people parking/getting out of their cars while I’m thinking, “how in the hell are they getting these spots?!”
What I learned, that hopefully you will learn as well, was to come to campus at a different time, even if that means having to get there very far in advance. That, or take this semester/quarter as a learning experience, and try and schedule your classes when parking isn’t so awful. After my parking fiasco, I made it a habit to arrive about 15 minutes earlier, and sure enough, no trouble finding a place to park.
But yeah, parking at SJSU was awful; it didn’t help that the parking permit was $200.
Okay, I calmed down a little now and thought of some possible solutions for the college; don’t give permits to students who live on-campus (or at least restrict them to the lot in front of the dorms), require students who live in town to demonstrate that they have some special need a car and can’t take a bus, get rid of all the grass islands and trees in the parking lot, or instead of an open lot build a multi-story garage (though the lot’s adjacent to the college and it would look bizarre).
If the students who live in the dorms drive from there to college, wouldn’t that free up parking space at the dorms? Why not park there, and get the exercise that the dorm-living idiots are missing out on?
You’d think that, but the dorm lots always seem to be full too!
Next time you’re forced to miss class, take down a list of all the license plate numbers parked in the class lot. That night, drive over to the dorm lots and check out the cars parked there. If you find any matches (cars that drove from the dorm to classes) leave a short but polite note on their car. Here are some suggestions:
(1) I love you madly – can’t wait to see you in class this morning! Passionately Yours, Secret Admirer. (also leave dead roses and a bloody stuffed animal)
(2) Walk to class for once, you lazy sphincter-licking panda spunk.
(3) I cut your brakes. Have a nice day!
Is it possible for your to drive most of the way to school and take public transportation from there? I know it’s inconvenient but if it gets you to class on time…
alpha, that is indeed an annoying situation, and I think your thoughts on possible solutions to hold possibility, although not in enough time to help you in any way this semester, unfortunately.
A possible interim solution might be to find a park-n-ride lot that your local public transportation hosts, park there and then take a bus to school. Alternately, if a park-n-ride lot is not available or not convenient, park in the lot of a grocery or department store that happens to be on a convenient bus route. This is by no means an ideal solution, and I don’t want to discourage you on following up on your ideas, but it may help you get to class on time. Just my 2c worth, take it for what it’s worth. 
What I meant was drive part way to school, park in a public lot somewhere and take public transport from there.
As an employee of a university where growth has strained the parking: garages are freakishly expensive. We were told the cost even a 2 story garage was so expensive that it wasn’t yet economically feasible, although we’ll have to move to it soon. Garages are kind of a last resort because it’s difficult to get money for a garage: people will donate to a classroom building, dorms can be financed, but parking is hard to pay for except from parking fees.
Did I mention I live 30 minutes away by car?!
Motorcycle?
Yup, they call 'em “hunting licenses” around here. Personally, I think they should sell required raffle tickets and draw for assigned spaces. Then you’d either have a space or not, but at least you’d know. Once you’ve won your space, you should be able to do what you want with it - trade it, rent it out, whatever.
A lot of students here park away from campus (a few blocks to several miles - most of the area immediately surrounding campus is designated No Parking due to students) and bicycle the rest of the way. Just a thought.
Maybe they shouldn’t be free.
I think Jurph meant to write that on a note…
My college has crappy parking too. I live 13 miles away and bike in when I can. It takes about an hour to bike, but when I spend 20 minutes driving + another 20 minutes looking for a place to park, and then another 10 minutes to walk in, the hour biking doesn’t seem that long of a time.
- Can you drive partway, find a park & ride (or someplace you can park your car) and bike the rest of the way in? (I see Redtail23 suggested this too).
- Park off campus. My campus charges $14 for a parking ticket, while the city my college is in only charges $7, if you do happen to end up parking in the wrong spot at the last minute. Sometimes the walk is a little long, but exercise is generally good for you.
- Drive in extra early and sit in the coffee shop or library and study.
That makes no difference. I pay $36 a quarter for my parking permit and I often have to park waaaaaay out in the back of the school (not that I mind, in the grand scheme of things-- the walk is good for me. I just get annoyed when I’m running late and can’t park within half a mile of my class). Hell, I have friends that have had to park in the shopping center across from school (at least a half to 3/4 of a mile walk to the school) and then are still late.
Frankly, I feel like I’m getting screwed because I’m paying for parking, but there hardly ever is any even remotely decent parking (meaning less than a 5 minute walk to class). I’d be all for there being various levels of parking, like: for $50 a quarter you can park in lot X, which is really close- for $40 a quarter you can park in lot Y which is farther out- for $30 a quarter you can park in lot Z which is way out there- and for free you can park your car 4 blocks away, under a bridge. Seems like a reasonable plan to me.
Back in my day we paid ~$400 for a campus parking permit, and any staff or faculty memebr could park in student parking and the lots were grotesquely oversold. A friend asked once and T&P told him that they sold 18,000 permits for 8,000 spots. Yeah, they screw you, but wait until you have a real job and you get to pay $700 a year for the right to look for a parking spot near your building. College parking always has, and always will suck ass.
Brilliant!
Okay, now I’m scratching my head. When “students fucking drive from the fucking dorms* to the fucking college,” what happens to the parking space they used to occupy at the dorm?
*Do students get to choose which kind of dorm they want to live in: fucking or nonfucking?