THE PARKING situation at the University has always been a mess. On weekdays, the problem comes down to the fact that too many people want to drive to Grounds where there is simply not enough space to put their cars. The elimination of the JPA lot due to the South Lawn Project has only exacerbated the problem. However the University makes the problem worse than necessary on weekends by putting entire parking lots off-limits for no apparent reason.
In particular, there is no good reason why three of the four parking lots around Ruffner Hall are permit-only parking on Saturday, Sunday and at night. These are the two parking lots off of Emmet Street and the parking lot between Ruffner and the Physics building just off McCormick Road. There are hardly ever more than a couple of cars in any of these three parking lots on weekends or after 9 p.m. In contrast, the fourth parking lot, between Ruffner Hall and Bonneycastle Circle, is the only one that does not require permits on weekends and weekday evenings and is generally crammed with cars.
Rebecca White, director of parking and transportation services, explained there are two reasons why the lots are permit-only at all times. The first is to make sure that the Curry School has adequate parking for its evening programs. The second reason is to prevent a reduction in business for the Central Grounds Parking Garage across the street.
If the University is concerned that professors and permit-holders from the Curry School have somewhere to park when they come to conduct Curry School business off-hours, then they should reserve some number of spaces for permit holders. But it hardly makes sense to leave these lots empty all weekend and later in the evening for the few people who might conceivably use a small percentage of the total spaces.
Further, I think it's a bit money-grubbing of the University to keep these lots permitted in order to drum up business for the Central Grounds Parking Garage, especially since many undergraduates still won't pay for parking and are instead inconvenienced and put themselves and others in danger while looking for more distant parking or hoping for an open space in the Bonneycastle Circle lot.
The idea that closing these lots causes safety hazards might sound dramatic, but nevertheless it is true. The unnecessary diversion of cars onto McCormick Road and Bonneycastle Circle to get to the one lot in that area that can be used without a permit could lead to problems for several reasons. Bonneycastle Circle is narrow and poorly lit, and many students walk down the street at night. Often cars are stopped in the middle of the street waiting for passengers and could cause accidents. McCormick Road itself is poorly lit and has many students crossing outside of crosswalks, and the University should seek to limit the traffic on it. Also it can be difficult, especially at night, to see pedestrians walking down the sidewalk when turning left onto McCormick from Bonneycastle Circle.
Fortunately, I'm not aware of any accidents that have occurred on Bonneycastle Circle. But the fact that no tragedy has happened does not disprove that the University could make a small policy change to reduce the probability of one in the future. By opening up the parking lots directly off of Emmet Street near Ruffner, the University would limit these problems.
A separate safety issue is that requiring permits at night for the parking lots near Ruffner forces many students to park in less-trafficked areas near the Computer Science building and the football stadium, where many crimes have been reported. This would be less necessary were the lots near Ruffner opened.
Even if there were no safety issues, the Ruffner lots are much more convenient to many places students might be going at non-peak hours like Alderman Library or Newcomb Hall than the lots near the stadium.
The University might maintain that if students aren't willing to pay the relatively low evening fees for the garage then they take these risks and the inconvenience upon themselves. To a graduate student in economics, it is hard to resist the conclusion that if students aren't willing to pay the small fee, they don't put too high a value on these problems. But I think there is also something to the idea that cash-strapped students are allergic to paying for parking and that no matter how low the price, many still wouldn't pay it. In light of the potential problems that can result, the Central Grounds garage is one University operating cost that shouldn't be on the shoulders of students.
Andrew Winerman's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at awinerman@cavalierdaily.com.
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