Fixing the parking problem

Parking on campus can be described with any number of four letter words, none of which can be printed in this column without censorship or a major backlash from people who think I’m hurting the youth of this country by cursing in the print media.

So to save myself the headache of dealing with the profanity police and to summarize the parking situation on campus, I’ve got only two words: IT SUCKS. And with all the construction on Hillsborough Street, the steadily increasing population on campus and the relatively static number of parking spots, it’s not looking any better.

Will the parking situation ever really get better for students in the next few years? No.

Can we start planning long-term solutions with what brain cells we have left after we’ve beaten our heads against our steering wheels because there is not a parking spot to be found? Yes, we can, and we should before we either graduate or lose brain function because we didn’t stop hitting our heads against the wheel when we first heard that squishy sound.

Ideally, we’d like more parking available on campus or fewer permits handed out. But that’s not likely to happen, as NCSU Transportation issues residential parking permits close to one-to-one, while commuter permits to the parking decks and other lots are overbooked, since not everyone is supposed to be on campus at the same time. Anyone who’s tried to park from about 10 a.m. to noon knows the problem with that strategy — everyone with a permit might not be there, but there are definitely more cars than spaces available.

Given that, we’d like to see the Wolfline and other bus services improve to the point where we can miss one bus and still be only five or so minutes late for class, tops.

Unfortunately, a true mass transit system really won’t be cost-effective in the Raleigh area for one simple reason: population density. The reason buses and trains are effective in major cities is due to the fact that there are a bunch of people crammed into a small area — this makes it ridiculously easy to strategically place bus or rail stations so that people can easily access the transit system. Basically, if a transit system is reasonably priced (especially when compared to the cost of ownership and operation of a car), extremely convenient to use and very reliable, people will tend to use it more.

So in order for us to see any noticeable progress on the bus system, we need to be prepared to fork over a large amount of tax and fee money. Buses, fuel prices (which have the annoying tendency to increase more than decrease), payroll and maintenance are not going to come from the magic money fairy. Nor will the good citizens who own large amounts of land that is ideally located for a park and ride lot sell their land cheaply. And if we want the lots to be decent and capable of holding a large number of cars, we need to hire someone to build a parking deck or pave the lot, which sadly is not free.

Regardless, I say we plan for the future and start working on these regrettably expensive projects. After all, in 25 years, today’s students will be tomorrow’s parents. Since we don’t want our hypothetical kids to beat their heads against the steering wheel due to the lack of parking (and we DEFINITELY do not want them going to that school up in Chapel Hell), we should act now to work with transportation and parking officials, both on-campus and off to try to figure out parking and transit.