Parking is a pain… not
Comments
Print This
Email This
Tweet This
Delicious
Parking. The word alone is enough to prompt many Oakland University students, staff and faculty to begin a diatribe of epic proportions.
Dean and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Glenn McIntosh prepared the campus community for the parking situation this year via an email blast. It’s as if we are preparing for a natural disaster.
Except this annual event never turns out to be a disaster. Each year, we hear horror stories of cars darting around parking lots for upwards of an hour, searching for a coveted parking spot. Turns out, those people are searching in all the wrong places.
Every year, the OU Police Department counts the number of available parking spaces in each lot during the start of each semester and throughout the year. There has never been a time where there are no available parking spaces, which dispels the myth that there is not enough parking available on campus.
Besides, a 5-15 minute walk could save every parking spot seeker a lot of aggra- vation and contribute to healthy living. Check out next week’s issue for a feature about walking on campus.
Discussions about parking have been brought up numerous times at board of trustees meetings all throughout the year.
It’s odd that a group of people who have parking spaces reserved by cones during every meeting is taxed with hearing about parking problems.
If it all seems a little bit ridiculous, it’s because it is.
Dean McIntosh’s email instructed people to show up an hour ahead of time. Typically, OUPD officers are on hand to direct the flow of traffic and stop people from entering overflowing lots.
What makes the beginning of the school year so much more hectic than the rest of the year, though? Everything seemingly works out after the first few weeks.
We’ve already hypothesized before that it’s not really a parking problem the school has, but a walking problem. That’s not an excuse anymore, though.
The Bike Share program has been in existence now for about two years. More bikes are introduced each year and the cute cruisers are a free, easy way to zip from parking lots to buildings.
If you’re not a fan of doing any work in order to get from once location to another, the Bear Bus shuttle program, which begins its second year of service this fall runs an almost-complete loop around campus.
A Ride Share bulletin board is also posted in the basement of the Oakland Center, across from the Center for Student Activities. Carpooling can help with the hassles of finding parking for multiple vehicles and reduce costs associated with gas prices. Commuter resources are available at www.oakland.edu/csa for those interested in ride sharing.
Also take into account that parking is free on campus and does not require a permit, which is a rarity even among other commuter campuses.
At U of M Dearborn, permits are required and students must apply for them. Wayne State University students pay $260 to $340 per semester for parking and can only park in assigned lots. Grand Valley State University has a similar arrangement for commuter students, though fees are a lot lower.
A majority of Michigan public universities require permits and charge students from parking. OU is a campus that serves many commuter students by alleviating the burden of extra costs.
Stop wasting time talking about the purportedly bad parking situation. On-campus parking should be the least of student worries.
Dean McIntosh put it best when he told campus community members to be patient during the coming weeks.
