Parking on campus

The parking situation on campus is an atrocity—I think that is all I need to say for you to know exactly what I am referring to. I have a vehicle and have found it increasingly difficult to park all across campus. I have lived on the south side with freshmen, and I have lived on central campus. Many times, I had to find parking in lot R, E, and sadly sometimes even H. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the parking lot locations, all three of these are on the far north side.

I will start with my past grievances in south side parking. It has always been a recurring theme that parking in the fall is much easier than in the spring, as not all freshmen have yet discovered the arguable need for personal transportation around Geneseo. While lot U has multiple levels for parking, there is still less parking on south side than on the north side.  The problem comes when the parking office lets anyone that pays for a pass get one. A lot of first-year students realize that they can bring their car in the spring semester and therefore do, even though there is not enough space for all of them by their designated residence hall. 

Moving to the north side, there are never enough parking spots for all the upperclassmen that live there. It has sometimes taken me more than 10 minutes to find a spot, and I always end up in the one next to the tennis courts, lot H. Sometimes, I have driven down Court Street and looked into lot R but have decided it is not even worth my time to try. If you have ever found a free spot in lot E, then you are blessed by God because it is always full, even on the weekends when students go home. Maybe that’s because Ontario is right there; many sports and Greek life people live there and have no need to go home when all the fun is a hundred or so feet from them. 

I wish the parking office would only give out a certain number of passes and ask where we will be parking for the majority of the time; that way, there could be at least one guaranteed spot per car. But I am honestly not even sure that this would work, and I honestly do not know what would; but something needs to change. I think that the parking office should have a set number of passes per area, and then it should be first-come first-serve to get the pass. The number could be ten less than what is there for any guests or students that drive to the opposite sides of campus for group work, classes, jobs, etc. The school could also go by credit hours or other academic factors to determine who should and who should not get a parking pass.

I just want to be able to find a parking spot that is not a mile away from my hall, and, I want people to park better so we are not losing spots to those that cannot drive or park a car.