Parking Rage: Why Are Students So Angry?

Here it is, the year 2000. We are now officially in the future. OK, it’s been the year 2000 for 10 months, but still, it is a time of change. Right now is the time that we all anticipated as we watched George Jetson step into a booth unkempt, come out ready for work, and whiz off in his flying car to go to Spacely Sprockets. Well, bad news: getting ready in the morning still sucks and even worse, no flying cars.

Nick, what are you doing? I thought this was an article on parking.

Chill, baby. I’m making a really contrived point. We don’t live in an age of flying cars, and I don’t know if things would be better if we did. More specifically, I don’t know if our university would find any available space for us to park our flying cars, even in the air above campus.

It took me a while to get to my point, but I think the one thing that many JMU students can agree upon is their frustration with the parking situation.

“The parking services f---ing suck,” stated junior David Francois. “I don’t have anywhere to park. Even if I could find a space, I probably still wouldn’t be allowed to park there.”

Francois is one of many commuters who expresses disdain toward parking on campus. He owns a permit, but only parks on campus in the evenings to get something to eat.

Now, personally, I have several issues with the parking services. Last spring, I attended the first annual JMU Parking Forum. I got an opportunity to ask some of my own personal questions, as well as listen to the opinions of the other two or three students in attendance. After braving three hours of roundabout answers and rhetoric, I came away with the slight hope of changes to come. No such luck.

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a lot of dirt and machinery by Newman Lake. Since last semester, I haven’t seen jack squat rise from the ground. This is the site of our $6 million solution to all of our parking problems. No, it’s not a monorail station. It’s our new parking deck, slated to be finished two months ago. Keep up the good work!

Another change that has occurred is the changing of the lot names. Come on, can you annoy us any more? I mean J Lot and X Lot didn’t make a lot of sense, but we all knew where they were.

“Hey, I’ll meet you in C3. Or was it C2?”
Confusing and obnoxious. Oh yeah, and all four “R” lots are on opposite corners of campus.

The lot that I personally hate is R2, formerly known as Z-lot. Dude, if you’re a resident who doesn’t live in the Lakeside area, you got a long hike ahead of you. Last year, I was coming back to campus late at night. I was sick and it was raining. X-Lot was full, and I didn’t have an umbrella or a jacket, so I wasn’t about to go to Z-Lot. Instead, parked in J-Lot, adjacent to my dorm, and ran inside before my flu became pneumonia.

When I woke up the next morning, I immediately went out to my car to move it, but I had already received a citation.

And don’t even think about appealing, ‘cause it ain’t gonna happen! I appealed due to what I thought to be a justified reason. You know what they told me? “You should’ve called a cadet or the police to escort you back.” Are you kidding me? Argh, just thinking about that incident and my loss of 20 bucks makes me sick. Which is why I’m going to turn this article back over to the opinions of my fellow students.

Juniors Judy Bruen and Susan Kim are roommates who live off campus. Both of them have cars and neither of them owns a permit. Why not? Well, I asked them that same question.

“It’s unreliable,” Bruen said. “If you want to find a spot you have to go an hour before class.”

He finds his issues with getting to campus far more trivial than if he drove. “Skateboarding is the best. You don’t have to park, so carrying your board around with you is your only problem. I think I need a helmet, though.”

I own a car. I do not, however, own a permit. First of all, I can find better ways of spending 140 bones. Secondly, like I’ve already said vicariously through other students, it’s just not that convenient. Now, I live in Olde Mill.

Dude, you shouldn’t have said that. Now the parking people will track you down.

Let them. I’m ready. Anyway, I live close enough that I could just walk if I need to. Now, for those of you who live in Stone Gate or Sunchase, this isn’t really an option. But, the bus is. Now, before you get all pissed about Harrisonburg Public Transit, I think we can all agree that is isn’t too bad. At worst, you’ll be a little early to class. But think of this: You are saving a lot of money, and, if you care, you’re helping reduce pollution.

Another option is this new car-pool deal. Although I don’t know anyone who uses this burdensome method that requires all four participants to have bumper stickers and juggle one hangtag.

As for the parking staff, I’ve heard the line about “We’re just students, too. We’re just doing our jobs.” True. But, when you join the parking services, you are separating yourself from those who drive to school and wait in line for a spot in a gravel parking lot. You’re setting yourself apart from those of us who just want to get to class on time. You’re leaving us and becoming them. See, we’re just students, too. Although some of us may be spoiled rotten, most of us don’t have the money laying around to pay for unfair citations just because we wanted to run into the Festival real quick and couldn’t find a spot.

If we didn’t have the $140 to buy a permit, where do you think we’ll find the $100 to pay for not having a permit? If you’re on the parking staff and you are a student, I’m just asking that you have a heart and go easy on the asinine citations, like “parking overtime at a timed space.”

Parking Services is taking applications right now. If you haven’t applied yet, don’t. 7-11 is hiring, too, and they don’t piss people off. (Unless the Slurpees are watery. I hate that.)

Look, we don’t need another forum. We may not even need a monorail, as cool as that would be. We just want to park somewhere and still get to class on time. If that means doing away with one or two fields, fine. Perhaps next year the parking services will do the logical thing and sell only as many passes as they have spots. But, we go to JMU, the revenue machine, so maybe the bus isn’t a half-bad idea.