2008 Woodie Awards
Campus parking:
Old issue, new solutions
Nathan Wayne
Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: Opinion
One thing that proves to be difficult for many to fit into daily schedules is the amount of time necessary to find somewhere to park before class.
It becomes a horrible nuisance to hurry to class directly after work and still be late due to the parking situation.
Who knew a parking space could become such a rare commodity?
In order to determine exactly how rare these spaces are, I contacted Bruce Cotgreave, director of the AC physical plant.
He said we have 1,570 parking places on the Washington Street Campus - 1,371 of those reserved only for students.
That does not seem to be a sufficient number of spaces, according to several ongoing complaints.
The lots are crammed full of cars, often leaving only enough space to squeeze a car through the aisles.
All the streets surrounding AC are lined with parallel parkers who use every spare inch of space.
Our vehicles sitting in front of residences due to a lack of parking choices dismay many homeowners.
I have attended AC for three semesters now, and this spring I have heard the complaints even more than usual.
At the beginning of the semester, traffic always is more hectic, yet during the most recent January snowstorm, the problem multiplied tenfold.
Piles of snow stole our already extremely limited parking spaces, and everyone seemed to forget the rules of parking.
On one of the snow days, I arrived in my class 30 minutes late, entirely due to my search for somewhere to park.
One reason for our parking dilemma became clear to me as I was reading an online post concerning a similar situation.
People simply are inconsiderate "parkers."
Some drivers will use two parking places for one vehicle, others occasionally park diagonally and some don't pull into their parking spot all the way.
Driver's education teachers would blush in shame driving around our parking areas.
The spaces all were designed and lain out in order to fit the entire car into a space.
It becomes a horrible nuisance to hurry to class directly after work and still be late due to the parking situation.
Who knew a parking space could become such a rare commodity?
In order to determine exactly how rare these spaces are, I contacted Bruce Cotgreave, director of the AC physical plant.
He said we have 1,570 parking places on the Washington Street Campus - 1,371 of those reserved only for students.
That does not seem to be a sufficient number of spaces, according to several ongoing complaints.
The lots are crammed full of cars, often leaving only enough space to squeeze a car through the aisles.
All the streets surrounding AC are lined with parallel parkers who use every spare inch of space.
Our vehicles sitting in front of residences due to a lack of parking choices dismay many homeowners.
I have attended AC for three semesters now, and this spring I have heard the complaints even more than usual.
At the beginning of the semester, traffic always is more hectic, yet during the most recent January snowstorm, the problem multiplied tenfold.
Piles of snow stole our already extremely limited parking spaces, and everyone seemed to forget the rules of parking.
On one of the snow days, I arrived in my class 30 minutes late, entirely due to my search for somewhere to park.
One reason for our parking dilemma became clear to me as I was reading an online post concerning a similar situation.
People simply are inconsiderate "parkers."
Some drivers will use two parking places for one vehicle, others occasionally park diagonally and some don't pull into their parking spot all the way.
Driver's education teachers would blush in shame driving around our parking areas.
The spaces all were designed and lain out in order to fit the entire car into a space.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
dknapp
Debbie Knapp
posted 2/10/07 @ 8:55 AM CST
I personally think this was a great article! But of course I would it was written by my son. A son I am very proud of! If I was going to Amarillo College and read this article it would make me think about what to do when I park in the parking lot. (Continued…)
Post a Comment