For years we have complained about on-campus parking. Next year, in response to these complaints, Parking Services will take major and decisive actions to solve the problem.
In short, Parking Services is changing nearly the entire system of parking. Most prominently and most relevant to most of the student population, commuter students will be assigned to certain parking lots, with the cars color-coded by parking decals to those parking lots.
The price of decals will also rise from $25 to $50. The decals will also be larger, in an effort to further promote the university.
Now, the first impulse anyone would have is to complain. It’s a big change, and it will happen all at once. People will complain about how far they are assigned to park from their classes. People will complain about the price of the new decals. People may even complain about how the decals will be bigger next year.
We already know that people generally don’t like change.
The fact is, the new parking system is a good system. It will cut down on traffic, especially in the middle of campus, clearing up some of the major pedestrian paths. This will make finding your parking space quicker. Streamlining the morning search for a space will even make it easier to get to class on time.
Understand that there will be bugs in the system at first. Any new system will have its problems that didn’t appear on paper, but will manifest in practice. Some people will park in the wrong lots. There probably will be many parking tickets given away in the first week or two of next semester.
So what else is new?
But the problems will get ironed out. When this happens, we think most people will find that the new parking system is far superior to the barely controlled chaos that has been instituted for years.
And, before you complain about the price of decals doubling, just look at what other universities have to pay. Even the new price will seem cheap when you consider that, in a paved parking lot, it takes far more than $25 or even $50 to maintain just one parking space.
As for the larger parking decals, just count them as another bumper sticker.
Yes, we will be going through many changes next year, but we must remember to be patient. Eventually, this new system will solve more problems than it creates.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Angela Adair, news editor Elizabeth Crisp, assistant news editor Jed Pressgrove, sports editor Jeff Edwards, entertainment editor Dustin Barnes, managing editor Pam McTeer and editor in chief Josh Foreman.