A real solution to the parking issues on campus.
There's a couple things I think could be done about the parking situation on campus (including some that are currently being done) to help improve the overall parking scenario on campus, including making parking more affordable for all students.
What's been done: Students who live on campus can't buy general passes. Students who live on mines park can only get MP passes.
Suggestion to improve further: Students who live on campus can only park overnight in MP, and enforcing this.
A motorcyclist pass:
I know of quite a few people who have motorcycles on campus, and I'm one of them. If I could buy a commuter pass to park my car in commuter parking, but still be allowed to park my motorcycle in the loading zone areas in general, that would be a fantastic change. It'd free up a spot for cars by putting me in the general parking, and keep that spot free by allowing my bike in the loading zones in the general lots.
Pricing based on vehicle size:
I drive small vehicles, and I know some people don't. If I'm parallel parking on the street, I only take up one car sport, whereas the guy who has the extended cab/bed truck takes up a good clear 2 spots in length. I've seen these large vehicles take up spots like this before, and sometimes they prevent other people from parking in the lots.
Buying passes based on the day:
Last semester, I only had classes on Tuesday/Thursday, realistically. If I'm only using the spot 4 days of the week, I'd like to be able to declare that I'm only using that spot 4 days a week. Having a pass that had MTWRF printed on the bottom, and then punch out the days that I can't use it for, and then charge/allocate spaces accordingly.
Pass enforcement:
If I'm required to register my car, then I shouldn't need the pass in the windscreen, and vise versa. I originally had the pass in the passenger side of my windscreen, as I had it the last 4 years, and only encountered an issue with enforcement this semester. I've moved it to the driver's side, now, but I find it quite distracting there.
The Parking Office:
There's several signs around the parking office, such as the "parking sucks, deal with it" article on the wall, and the citations regarding disruptive behavior. This makes the parking office itself feel very hostile, and makes me feel very apprehensive going in there. Making the environment feel like I was going to be cooperated with would go a long way towards putting me at ease when I have to visit there.
Jonathan Lewis
shared this idea
Pricing based on vehicle size: Most of the spots on campus are not on the street so we do not think that pricing based on vehicle size would be a good option.
Pass enforcement: It makes it easier for the student workers to have the pass be consistently in one place.
Parking office: We will bring up in our meeting that this is “hostile” but it’s a joke it is not meant to be taken seriously,
Buying passes based on the day: We can bring this up in a meeting on the logistics of buying passes for specific days. Most people have classes at least four days of the week, however, so I don’t know how much of a benefit this would be.
Motorcycle pass: We discussed this issue and decided that we are not going to pursue it. There are a lot of other issues that we are working on that benefit a greater percentage of the student body and want to focus on those.
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Anonymous
commented
Making big vehicles pay more for parking?! I'm already paying more for gas, repairs, original cost, etc.. I don't need a more expensive parking permit just because the requirements of my vehicle are different than yours
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Anonymous
commented
Why don't they just build a parking garage?
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Nice Guy
commented
I think folks need some perspective. Parking will always be a problem. It is a problem on most college campuses, and has been for years. No matter how much parking is available, it will be filled. I have a great solution to parking: arrive on campus before 8:30AM. Yay for me!
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Bob
commented
I agree that the sarcastic and hostile signs and articles displayed in the parking office need to be removed immediately. They are highly unprofessional and have no place being publicly displayed in an office. Furthermore, they contribute to an "us vs. them" attitude already prevalent between parking services and the rest of campus. The first thing someone sees when they walk into the office is a sign literally advertising the poor quality of parking services (i.e. "parking sucks"). How can anyone expect a civil dialogue to take place when these hostile signs display an aggressive attitude to any and all persons walking into the office?!
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Bob
commented
I agree that the sarcastic and hostile signs and articles displayed in the parking office need to be removed immediately. They are highly unprofessional and have no place being publicly displayed in an office. Furthermore, they contribute to an "us vs. them" attitude already prevalent between parking services and the rest of campus. The first thing someone sees when they walk into the office is a sign literally advertising the poor quality of parking services (i.e. "parking sucks"). How can anyone expect a civil dialogue to take place when these hostile signs display an aggressive attitude to any and all persons walking into the office?!
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Bob
commented
I agree that the sarcastic and hostile signs and articles displayed in the parking office need to be removed immediately. They are highly unprofessional and have no place being publicly displayed in an office. Furthermore, they contribute to an "us vs. them" attitude already prevalent between parking services and the rest of campus. The first thing someone sees when they walk into the office is a sign literally advertising the poor quality of parking services (i.e. "parking sucks"). How can anyone expect a civil dialogue to take place when these hostile signs display an aggressive attitude to any and all persons walking into the office?!
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Anonymous
commented
Also, one more idea would be to have staff parking spots be no more expensive than general parking, if even costing any money. I've seen a TON of staff members that buy general passes, and know of a few that don't buy staff passes because they're "too expensive." Staff parking lots with 3 cars in them is space wasted.
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Seriously, calm down.
commented
Forcing students who live on campus to park only in Mines Park overnight ruins Mines Park parking. Its not like there's a ton of vacant spots up there, believe me.
You can't park in a loading zone. Hello, its a loading zone. LOADING. not PARKING. Sorry, bud.
Pricing based on vehicle size? What? I realize that might do you good on the street. By a whole three feet per block. Maybe. But the amount of parking spots in lots far surpasses the amount of street spots. That's silly. You'd have to force certain people to only park on the street. Good luck with that.
Based on the day? Also. How would you even manage that. There are only so many colors to signify who can park on the street, the lot, general, commuter, mondays, tuesdays, wednesdays, thursdays, and fridays. And regulating that would be ridiculous.
If you get THAT easily distracted by a sticker in the bottom left of your windshield, I'd hate to see how you drove with an actual distraction. Its a sticker. Lots of stickers end up in the bottom left of your windshield. That's just part of driving. If you can't drive with that kind of "distraction", then don't drive....
You know. I don't care if the parking office is particularly sarcastic or blunt with their signs. They have to work there and deal with people complaining because their stickers are too distracting. Be nice to them and they'll be nice to you. The end.
With the cutdown of freshman parking that will go into effect next fall, the amount of available parking spots will increase. The increase in price isn't that bad. Other schools pay $900 for a parking pass. We're very lucky and need to stop acting like spoiled brats. And we also need to stop complaining about having to park in the back of Q or F. Its an extra 150 yards from an "ideal" parking space. We have a tiny campus. At the end of the day, walking from the CTLM to the back of Q ISNT THAT BAD. Other schools would dream of having a space that close to them.
Perspective, kids, perspective.
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Anonymous
commented
Here's some issues I have with your proposed ideas:
Motorcycles parked in loading zones: How are people supposed to use the loading zones if they're full of motorcycles?
Passes based on the day: So what about when you have to come to campus for an event or presentation or visit to the health center or who knows what on a non permitted day? Are you willing to say that should that occur you'd be willing to shell out the money to pay to park? And what's to stop people from altering their permits? We have enough fake permits around campus as it is without adding more things for the monitors to verify for authenticity.
Pass enforcement: Clearly you have no idea how the parking system actually functions. When a monitor puts in a vehicle it doesn't just bring up all the information on car and the owner. Yes it'll say if it has a permit or not or if it's in the system, but if you drive a different car there's no way of knowing if it has permit or not. Plus with your idea, monitors would have to manually enter every single vehicle in a lot by hand into their handhelds. It already takes approximately 20 minutes to do one lot if everyone is parked legally. The extra time it would take to check every single vehicle would make it nearly impossible to adequately cover the entire campus throughout the day.
The parking office: You think it's a hostile environment to go into? Try working there. People scream and yell and throw things and make threats at the monitors and staff who work there. The reason why those signs for the disturbances are up is to remind people that they be can thrown out if they get unruly. There are legal reasons behind the display of those particular laws. It's to protect the people that work there.If you can't tell, I am a parking employee. I've worked there for several years now, and let me tell you the number of times I've been cursed at, had things thrown at me, or tried to have people run me down (literally, I've had at least 2 people try and hit me with their cars when I told them they couldn't park somewhere). I've had to call public safety for fear of being harmed when a driver comes back to their car and finds a ticket. People like you who clearly don't understand how the system functions make it worse for us. Try working at parking for a few months and then maybe you'll understand why things are the way they are.
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Anonymous
commented
Another thing that would help would be to make people with reserved stickers park in the reserved lots. As you drive around campus, especially from around 10am-12pm, there are constantly open spots in the reserved lots and people that should be parking there taking up the street parking and/or the closest general lot parking. If there are not enough people to fill all the reserved spots, some reserved stickers could be auctioned off to the highest bidder, that could certainly raise some money for the parking structure that they have supposedly been planning to build.