Parking Wars!

0
969
parking

Source: Emily Wright

Article: Raenna Gohm – Contributor

Parking has been an ongoing problem at the University of Regina for years. Students, including myself, are often late for classes due to parking problems. Sometimes students have to park nine or more blocks away just to avoid a ticket. Of course, for some students this is the only option once the university sells out of parking passes.

Last year’s parking was already tight and limited; this year the parking problem has gotten worse. Why? Because a decision was made to build another residence building, taking out a large chunk of the student and visitor parking that was available last year. Considering the parking problems, and the ongoing complaints about parking around the university, does anyone else think it would have been a good idea to fund a parkade to solve the parking problem and then build another residence building?

Not saying another residence building is a bad idea—It’s a good idea to open up rooms for people to stay on campus. Another residence building allows for more students to be closer to the university and get more involved with the university. Yet, I can’t help but believe a new residence building could have waited until after a parkade was built. Among students, I have not heard a single complaint about residence. Even walking around the university, it’s not something I hear complained about. Yet every day since university started up on September 4th, I have heard plenty of parking complaints.

Complaints such as, “I had to park 7 blocks away just to avoid a ticket;” “I bought my parking pass, but can’t find a place to park that is close to my classes. Buying a parking pass is useless if you can’t find any parking anyways;” “I had to park illegally or I would have been late for my class,” etc. The list goes on and on, and I hear about it every day. This parking issue causes extra stress that nobody needs, yet I haven’t heard of any proposed solutions.

Here is the solution that I have thought about as well as discussed with many fellow students around the university. A parkade! Downtown has them, stores have them, casinos have them, large work buildings have them as well, and why can’t the university have one, too? A multi-level, above-ground parkade!

Adding a multi-level, above-ground parkade could easily reduce the stress of parking for students. The university could even make new parkade passes to make sure the parkade doesn’t get over crowded. Add an elevator or two and a couple flights of stairs and the parkade has easy access to come and go to your vehicle. Not to mention, it would protect a lot of vehicles from getting blown in with snow over the winter months, as well as shading vehicles from heating up in summer months. As the idea stands, I do not see a negative to building a parkade on campus, and I would honestly like to know why this idea has not been considered.

 

Comments are closed.

More News