With 20,000 parking spaces available on NC State’s campus and over 44,000 students, faculty and staff members, the demand for on-campus parking is much greater than the supply of parking passes.
Chris Dobek, parking services manager of NCSU Transportation, spoke about the challenges the department faces when issuing parking passes to such a demanding market.
“The year before that, we had 1,300 on the waitlist for commuter permits. What is happening is the demand for commuter passes continues to increase.”
NCSU Transportation has several qualifications for students to meet in order to be eligible to receive a parking permit on campus. These prerequisites are implemented in order to reduce the flow of traffic into and out of campus on a daily basis.
“There are a couple of requirements,” Dobek said. “The primary is the credit hours, when we sell our commuter permits and our residential permits. We [also] have a rule in place that states students who live along Hillsborough between Rosemary and Cox are not eligible for a commuter pass, basically because of the concentration of apartments along this corridor.”
Dobek also explained that parking permits are allocated based on an individual’s primary reason for being at NC State. Because of this, NCSU Transportation only allows students one type of parking pass per semester.
“When we allocate our permits, we look at the reasons why our students and our staff are here,” Dobek said. “So, your primary reason for being at the university is an education, you are a student. My primary reason is employment, so you’re a student first and an employee second, and I’m an employee first.”
NCSU Transportation also has several programs in place to combat the continuously growing demand for student parking and help students get to campus in a timely manner. Dobek urges students to take advantage of the Wolfline bus system and other services offered by NCSU Transportation, such as the Carter-Finley Park & Ride, as an alternative to driving to campus.
“We also run the Carter-Finley free Park & Ride at the Carter-Finley football stadium, and it’s a free parking option for our commuter students,” Dobek said. “We run a bus every 15 minutes from Carter-Finley to Hillsborough Street.”
Despite NCSU Transportation’s efforts to alleviate frustration regarding parking on campus, parking is discussed regularly amongst students and faculty. Alex Obiol, director of University Affairs in Student Government, discussed the frustration felt across campus and urged students to bring their thoughts about parking to Student Government.
“I think something that is talked about a lot on campus amongst faculty and staff as well as students is that there is not enough parking,” Obiol said. “Right now, I don’t think that information has been brought to Student Government in a substantive, collective piece for us to be able to do anything. That being said, we are able to pick up any project that we like and run with it.”
Obiol said that she recognizes that parking spaces on campus are finite and understands the pressure felt by NCSU Transportation to meet the parking demands of students and staff, but also acknowledges that allowing students to be a part of the dialogue surrounding parking is important.
“I think [parking] is something that they are as concerned about as students are annoyed about,” Obiol said. “But I always think that there is room for students in the conversation, and I think Student Government is a good avenue for that.”
Students who are interested in learning more about parking at NC State can visit the university’s transportation website.
