There are two very ugly faces of parking:
1. Finding a spot.
2. Parking Tickets.
The inability to find a parking spot in a timely manner will drive me to anger, and frustration faster than just about anything else. Let me break down my situation for you. Every morning I wake up and drive to my college campus and start hunting for a spot. Naturally I try to keep morning classes out of my schedule so I can sleep in. Unfortunately this means when I arrive at the commuter parking lot at 11:30 (for a 2:00 p.m. class) every spot is taken, and I mean EVERY spot.
I should mention that our commuter lot is broken up into three large sections and until this year I have not had to much trouble finding a spot to park. Sometimes my spot may be far away, but I don't mind walking as long as I can park. This year however there is LESS parking because the whole middle section is closed off so, ironically, they can build a parking garage.
(Actually they are building a new academic building, and a parking garage, so whenever the project is done there wont really be any more spots than there used to be, just spots that have been relocated up several flights of stairs.)
In the mean time there are about 100 spots fewer than normal, which has created a piranha like mentality amongst everyone looking for a spot. Everyone circling around waiting to converge on the next student returning to their car. Well after 45 MINUTES of circling I finally found someone leaving their spot, or what looked like a spot.
This bring us to ugly face #2. Since construction has begun on the middle section a large gate has been built around it to keep people out of the construction zone. The gate crosses right over the section of road that connects one parking lot to the other. Conveniently enough it leaves the entrance to this road unblocked, in fact there is just over a car lengths worth of road left ungated creating room for two cars to park next to one another and be 100% out of the way of traffic passing behind them. If you park there you're actually in line with with the cars on either side of you in the parking lot. (Just to clarify, this road is like the doorway between 2 lots, it is not near any street. All traffic passing behind you is parking lot traffic, not street traffic.)
Now I'm sure you can see where this is going, I got a ticket for parking here, the official reason being that this was "not a space." I would be willing to accept this reason if not for a few things. First I have seen people parking in these spots for over a semester, second, parking there does not block or hinder anyone in anyway, third the spots are in the commuter section of the lot which I have a paid pass for, and lastly THERE IS NO SIGN SAYING PARKING THERE ISN'T ALLOWED.
I can understand if originally they didn't put a sign up and assumed people wouldn't park there. I think it stands to reason however, that if this has been happening for over a semester, than obviously there is there is some confusion or miscommunication about whether you can park there.
I mean how hard would it be to put up a sign or some cones, or anything that lets you know you'll get a ticket? Sure maybe originally parking services are not at fault for not realizing there would be any confusion, but at this point in the game they are being irresponsible and simply taking advantage of students who have paid for commuter passes and are unknowingly parking illegally in a clearly marked commuter zone.
With parking as limited as it is anyway it seems like adding two additional spots for a limited time would actually be very helpful, but then why be helpful when you could squeeze an extra few bucks out of unknowing students everyday?
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