| Students need to start counting their parking blessings |
by Denice Hurlburt
HUR00001@BYUI.EDU
News Asst. Editor
|
IThe University of Michigan has received a new blessing, and everyone is excited. Busses will now transport students and faculty from the parking lots to the campus free of charge. This news means a lot to the 1,150 faculty, staff and students who drive to work each day, because bus fare can add up, and most campus parking is almost seven miles away from campus.
At BYU-Idaho, students complain about the parking. At peak times, often the only available parking is at the far end of the Hinckley parking lot, a rigorous five-minute downhill walk to the center of campus.
Current parking services at BYU-I are more than adequate; they are exceptional. The only change that really needs to be made is an increased price in parking permits to reserve the better spaces for students who would really find value in them.
It is true that finding a parking spot near the north side of campus can be aggravating, especially for students who commute to school. On the other hand, 85 percent of BYU-Idaho’s student body lives within two blocks of campus.
At many universities, such as the University of Michigan, the parking lots aren’t as close to campus as most BYU-Idaho students’ apartments are. So why is everyone driving to school? If everyone that lived within walking distance of campus actually walked, commuters would face much less difficulty in finding convenient parking.
Captain Garth Gunderson of the BYU-Idaho Division of the Rexburg Police loves to tell students about his son, studying at Arizona State University. According to Gunderson, his son, who lives a substantial drive away from campus, was only able to obtain a parking permit allowing him to park a 15-minute drive away from campus. Gunderson says that every morning his son drives the half hour to his parking spot, then rides his bike the remainder of the distance, another 20 to 30 minutes.
BYU-I students also complain that there are never empty spaces on campus, that their permit fee is robbery, since the university doesn’t seem to offer promised services. According to BYU-I campus police, this is untrue
Last month’s parking survey indicated that only 77 percent of campus parking is used on average. Even at peak parking times, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., only 82 percent of parking within a five-minute walk to the center of campus is used.
Why is everyone complaining then? Largely because, in the minds of most students, parking is “out of the way.” It’s all at the south end of campus, in the Hinckley and Ricks parking lots. For a student who has a class in the Eliza R. Snow Performing Arts Center, it could take as much as 20 minutes to walk from available parking to class. In fact, for most students, it would take them less time to walk from their apartments. Once again, why are we driving to school?
On a final note, many students wonder why the school hasn’t provided more parking on the north end of campus, after all, there is an empty lot sitting on Second South, why not put it to good use?
Because it’s not worth it. The building and maintenance of each parking stall costs the university $1,000. That’s not every parking lot, not every row of cars, it’s every single space. For each car that would park in a new lot, the campus would have to expend $1,000. A student’s annual tuition would only cover three stalls. And, the installment of a new parking lot on the north end of campus would benefit students by saving them, maybe as much as 10 minutes of walking time.
If the administration wants to improve parking, they don’t need more spaces, they need to charge students a price to match the value of the services they are offering.
For the time being, perhaps students should save the school an unnecessary expense by leaving their cars where they ought to be — in their apartment complex lots.
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