What Parking Problem?
April 28, 2010 by: David Long
We’ve all done it, cruising around from parking lot to parking lot trying to find an empty space. Some days, it seems there are too many cars and not enough parking spots.
But, that’s not the case, according to Velton Daves, assistant director of the Physical Plant. There are 6,486 parking spaces on campus and at any given time there are between 200-400 empty spots. Most of the student complaints are based on parking being too far away from the class buildings, not an actual shortage of spaces, he said.
The perimeter parking lots were added during the 1990s when the university administration decided to make the campus more pedestrian friendly. Putting the parking lots at the edge of campus diverted traffic off the campus, he said.
The addition of the new College of Business building eliminated one of the larger parking lots on campus but that lot was never intended to be permanent. The land was acquired with the purpose of adding the building, Daves said.
A UCA parking lot
There has been discussion about building a parking deck, Daves said, but the administration has decided that the campus doesn’t need one. A parking deck would be too expensive, he said. A flat parking lot costs about $1,000 per space. A parking deck costs about $15,000 per space, he said. He dismissed rumors that the campus is too wet and too low to build one.
If you can’t find parking, there’s always the free, on-demand shuttle system that runs from the softball complex behind Lewis Science Center and Bear Village apartments to Alumni Circle. Daves suggests that you arrive early for that.
Here is a Channel Six report on this.
Of those 6,486 spots on campus, how many are faculty only? How many are resident only? How many are handicapped, visitor, time-limited, metered, or motorcycle spots? I’d wager at least half of them.
I’m not a huge contributor to gripe about needing more parking. I realize it is an issue, and I also realize certain budget constraints that prevent us from doing much about it. But to boldly deny that this is a problem is completely asinine. An inconvenience is walking five minutes to class. A problem is having to walk fifteen minutes to class in the pouring rain, from a remote parking lot that will likely flood your car anyway. (Namely, University Park, and Hughes parking lots).
It is a problem, and instead of denying it, Daves should perhaps be explaining that due to budget and space constraints, we can’t afford to address it at the moment.
Given Daves’ estimation of $1,000 per parking space, a simple solution could be to introduce more metered parking. Each spot (at $0.50/hour) could generate (potentially) $3-4 per day. It would take fewer than two years to recoup the expense. (Additionally, $15 parking tickets for those who don’t pay their meter add up rather quickly.)