Nightmarish parking a fixture on UA campus
The Traveler Editorial Board
Issue date: 9/15/08 Section: Opinion
Every year, parking at the UA seems to become a little more strained - and confusing.
New residence halls are built upon old parking lots, but additional convenient parking isn't offered to counteract the exchange. More metered areas sprout up, but fewer spaces are vacant in the resident reserved lots, the ones that cost more than $400 to secure.
And so the ticketing begins.
In 2007, 45,279 tickets were written for parking violations, said Andy Gilbride, program adviser for the UA Transit and Parking Department.
So far this year, around 40,000 tickets have been written - an average of 215 tickets a day.
Some of those citations will try to be appealed by students who think their being ticketed was unfair in some way, but nearly all appeals are denied. In 2007, for example, more than four-fifths of the 437 written appeals were rejected, and just 24 tickets were completely overturned, Gilbride said.
More than likely, all of those denials probably were warranted. Students go to extreme lengths to secure parking spots - by parking vehicles in the grass, on curbs and other various strange locations - and often break the law in the process.
But come on - 215 tickets a day?
Give students a break. For those who moved to Fayetteville from more than 30 minutes away - some from across the country - toting a car to the UA is a necessary evil. And when parking spots aren't available in those students' designated lots, they have no other choice but to park somewhere else.
Sure, it's a growing university, and with more students than ever - 19,191, to be exact - parking is expected to be a little sparse, especially when what is arguably more "necessary" construction - like the building of residence halls and the expansion of dining areas - has been taking place instead.
But it's hard to validate 215 tickets a day when it seems as if that ticket money isn't being used to build more convenient parking areas. (The Harmon Avenue Parking Garage hardly qualifies as "convenient" for many students on campus.) And if more accessible parking areas are never built, the number of tickets written each day will never decrease.
New residence halls are built upon old parking lots, but additional convenient parking isn't offered to counteract the exchange. More metered areas sprout up, but fewer spaces are vacant in the resident reserved lots, the ones that cost more than $400 to secure.
And so the ticketing begins.
In 2007, 45,279 tickets were written for parking violations, said Andy Gilbride, program adviser for the UA Transit and Parking Department.
So far this year, around 40,000 tickets have been written - an average of 215 tickets a day.
Some of those citations will try to be appealed by students who think their being ticketed was unfair in some way, but nearly all appeals are denied. In 2007, for example, more than four-fifths of the 437 written appeals were rejected, and just 24 tickets were completely overturned, Gilbride said.
More than likely, all of those denials probably were warranted. Students go to extreme lengths to secure parking spots - by parking vehicles in the grass, on curbs and other various strange locations - and often break the law in the process.
But come on - 215 tickets a day?
Give students a break. For those who moved to Fayetteville from more than 30 minutes away - some from across the country - toting a car to the UA is a necessary evil. And when parking spots aren't available in those students' designated lots, they have no other choice but to park somewhere else.
Sure, it's a growing university, and with more students than ever - 19,191, to be exact - parking is expected to be a little sparse, especially when what is arguably more "necessary" construction - like the building of residence halls and the expansion of dining areas - has been taking place instead.
But it's hard to validate 215 tickets a day when it seems as if that ticket money isn't being used to build more convenient parking areas. (The Harmon Avenue Parking Garage hardly qualifies as "convenient" for many students on campus.) And if more accessible parking areas are never built, the number of tickets written each day will never decrease.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 5
Baker Morgan
posted 9/14/08 @ 10:42 PM CST
amen to this article. thank you for writing this.
unearthed
posted 9/15/08 @ 6:47 AM CST
Garland Avenue Parking: $400+ (and talk is that it could be $600) for a spot. Seems the UA generates enough revenue from tickets to not charge so much. (Continued…)
Clint Cates
posted 9/15/08 @ 1:43 PM CST
We have a solution to this parking problem for the university! We are currently working with Los Angeles Community College District - LACCD (the largest college district in the US with over 200,000 students) to install the first College Campus U-ParkIT system in the US. (Continued…)
nate
posted 9/16/08 @ 3:43 PM CST
if they used parking tickets money to build more parking spaces, what are they going to do in the future? as all students have parking space? the revenue will go down considerably, then there is limited used for parking and transportation department at UA anymore, isn't it? hahahaa
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