By Harold Robinson, CAPP
We all hear it whether you are a municipal entity or an academic organization like our own. Here at the University of Mississippi’s main campus in Oxford, MS, we manage and maintain just over 17,000 parking spaces. On even the busiest day, we can pull up video feed showing hundreds of spaces or more that parkers are not utilizing, but still, we hear, “There are not enough parking spaces.”
Is it just that age-old expectation that everyone should be able to park directly outside the building where they work at or attend classes? Is it a rural university problem or do urban universities with few or no parking spaces at all still experience this?
Want to see students completely stumped? Try to explain to them that they should park their cars at one of several remote lots on the edge of campus and then take the convenient shuttle bus to a central part of campus that is likely within 500 feet of the building for their classes. They of course bought a commuter parking permit. We can also show them a half-empty commuter parking zone. Except, it is not where they want to park, and the lots close to where they want to be are “full”. When we explain that Commuter permits are authorized to park in these remote lots, something breaks inside their minds.
Park car, ride bus, get to class on time! Easy right? Apparently not…
Harold Robinson, CAPP, is the Assistant Director of Parking and Transportation Systems for The University of Mississippi. Harold can be reached at hdrobins@olemiss.edu.