University of Utah's Grave Parking Situation

By Lauren Deane on February 7, 2013

Apparently there weren’t enough parking spaces in the lot, so this individual decided to take a shortcut to class.  Thanks to Facebook, we were able to share this moment of parking frustration.  Maybe now the University of Utah Commuter Services will put more effort into making parking on campus less of a hassle for students, employees and visitors alike.

Now that you have seen the photo, we can discuss the possible solutions to the parking problems.

CONSTRUCTION:

The construction around campus is absolutely ridiculous and the biggest problem is it is taking up most of the U-lots (“U-lots” are the parking lots designated for students with a U-pass).  We have a beautiful campus, we do not need to have 10 buildings under construction at the exact same time.

First, it is a waste of money that we could be spending on better technology throughout campus, hiring more staff and providing more scholarships to those in need.

Second, it is a waste of space.  The University of Utah is well known to be a commuter campus, students need all the parking spaces available.  In an interview with the Director of Commuter Services, Alma Allred he said, the solution is for students to carpool, change their school schedules and start taking the bus.

The simple fact is, we can’t change our school schedule as Allred suggests.  Unfortunately, classes are only offered at certain times.  We don’t get to pick and choose due to when parking will be easiest.

Addressing Allred’s suggestion about taking the bus, it is a possible solution depending on where you live.  However, the buses are slow, they don’t all go to where students live and they are incredibly unreliable.

Carpooling is by far the best option that Allred provided, but sometimes it just doesn’t work.  We need these spaces.  The construction needs to be planned better next time.

The University of Utah’s switch from Mountain West Conference to PAC 12 benefited the university financially, which allowed us to go overboard with construction all at once.  My wish was that the individuals in charge would have planned their endeavors better.

THE BUS SYSTEM:

If the on-campus bus system wasn’t so frustrating, more people might start taking it.  Everyone understands the weather in Utah makes commuting a hassle.

The text messaging with the stop number and bus color is a great idea.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.  From a personally account, I sat at the University of Utah Hospital stop waiting for the red bus for over 10 minutes (surprisingly, the wait time wasn’t the problem).

I sent a text to the 41411 number and was supposed to receive a message back with the bus’s estimated time of arrival within two minutes.  I got the text back from the 41411 number 40 minutes later when I was sitting in my class listening to my professor lecture about logical fallacies.  Great idea, but it still has some obvious issues that need to be ironed out.

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