Wow....

In relation to a recent article from the AP, A north Dallas, TX man is dead after a reported feud with another gentleman regarding a parking space. All this increase in violence over driving issues, raises the question "What is the world coming to?" We have all seen it, and gone thought it. Being "flicked off" in parking lots, cut off at intersections, and tailgated on the highways. People theses days seem to have no regards concerning the general public, besides themselves, and the destination in witch they are traveling to. Americans are always on the go, and that does not exclude the younger generation of American drivers, especially college drivers. All of us see it, even here at Old Dominion University. Recently, I witnessed a "small feud" in one of the parking garages on campus, it regarded one student who had claimed to of been cut off and a parking space "stolen" from what I overhead. A pushing and shoving match soon escalated into a shouting match between the two students, soon, another random commuter came into the situation and pull one of the students aside, calming down, what could of been a violent situation.

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Encouragement for Greener Driving Habits

Colleges' policies on parking, of course, have been just a small piece of their overall efforts to encourage more eco-friendly habits. According to an article on Insider Higher Ed, parking on college campuses have become a bigger issue than officials could have ever imagined. Several colleges have tried to fix this problem by reserving spaces for car pooling and even eco-friendly cars; however some people think that they are taking this too far.

For three years Augsburg College, in Minneapolis had created a car pooling service where there were reserved spots located on the edge of campus. There wasn't a big demand until officials decided to move the reserved spots into the middle of campus. There was a drastic change from one to five in just the fall. John Pack, Augsburg’s director of public safety stated, “We know from what the car-poolers have told us that moving those reserved spots to the heart of campus, and adding that convenience factor, has been a big draw.” De Anza College, a two-year institution in California, has reserved 13 for alternative fuel vehicles, which must have a factory insignia declaring them hybrid, bio-diesel, or electric vehicle.

While changes haven’t been drastic, a number of colleges have put in place small numbers of “car pool only” or “hybrid only” parking spots to encourage greener driving habits .


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Stolen Parking Spots!

I swear, every time you think that you’ve escaped the parking dilemma, something else happens to put you right back to where you started from. Honestly, how hard is it to park where you’re supposed to?


Alright, let me start from the beginning. This happened to me the other night when a friend and I went out to dinner. The parking lot was full to begin with and we mainly had to just search for someone who was leaving in order to find a decent spot (sound like a familiar ODU parking situation? Yeah, tell me about it). Well anyways, we finally found a spot that wasn’t all the way out in the boondocks.


As we were walking inside, something caught my eye that really made me angry about that whole situation. One of the employees came outside to get something from their car. What it was I don’t really know, or care, but what I did care about was the fact that their car was parked RIGHT in front of the restaurant! Since when is it okay for employee’s to take the spots right by the door? I don’t know how this particular establishment works, but anywhere I’ve ever worked has had a special place where employees are supposed to park so that they are not taking the closest spots available for customers. Who knows what “rank” this person is inside the management system, but all I know is that I find it ridiculous that an employee, who is going to be there all day, gets a front row spot when the people who bring the restaurant business have to settle for second best. What happened to “the customer comes first?” I guess that customer was waiting for a parking spot.

An Hour or Less...and it's FREE!

It seems that the City of Norfolk has been clued in onto one of the hot spots of free parking on campus. 43rd street at the corner of Killam Ave. has always been free parking, until the other day. I walked out and saw that they had posted new signs stating that this was now "1 hour parking"...which i was confused about why it was not 2 hours, but that's another story. Normally there would be at least 20 to 30 cars parked along this street, so I was very interested on seeing how they felt about this.

The first person i came across was a sophomore named Chris, who was a commuter. He said that he parked on that street because he refused to buy the ridiculously high priced parking decal. He also thought that it was not fair that people who are only part-time students don't have a special area where they can park for cheap.

The second person I interviewed was a senior named Ashley, who was a resident of the Village Apartments. She said she parked on that street instead of buying a decal mainly because it was convenient. She didn't see the purpose of paying all the money for a decal when there was free parking next to her building. She seemed sad that the street was no longer free and was contemplating on whether or not she was going to buy a decal or just look for another free street.

It will be interesting to see how other students are going to react to this new parking restriction. However, there is one thing that I am sure of, Norfolk will be giving out a lot of tickets to those students who don't recognize that their "hot spot" is gone.

Parking Boondocks @ ODU

In a recent conversation with ODU's Director of Parking & Transportation Mr. James Long the issue regarding lots 52/47 was discussed. Just a little background on the issue, lot 52 (and former lot 47) towards Elkhorn Ave, is a broken up concrete and muddy area that used to be lot 47, but since the widening of the 43rd street, the lot has turned into a "mud pit" of sorts, and students have decided to park there. I was informed by Mr. Long that the muddy that was formerly known as lot 47, is now owned by the City of Norfolk, in partnership with letting ODU students park there. Now regarding the muddy lot, Mr. Long has asked the city to either do as they intended (which was to lay down sod) or if possible make the "mud pit" a gravel lot, so that students can continue to park there without getting stuck, which has happened in some cases. Mr. Long also informed me that their was/and possibly still are plans in the works for the removal of lots 52, 47, 48, 54, and that the lots will be turned into affordable housing for city employees that basically make under a six figure salary.
The developer that City of Norfolk was working with in this potential housing development fell through on the deal, due to a lack of financing for the project, but it is still a possibility Mr. Long informed me, if the developer gets financing through other outlets, this deal could still go through as planned. Hopefully the city, until a deal is set for a potential housing development, will lay down some gravel so that students can continue to park there in the future. Over the course of this semester I will continue to stay in contact with Mr. Long about this issue, and other issues that may arise in the future regarding commuters/parking on campus. For now, students can turn up their country music, and get a little "Mud on the Tires!"


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Recent Interviews with fellow ODU students

Recently some fellow contributors to this blog, sat down with some students to talk about the parking situation for residents and commuters and here's their responses:

Our first interview was with Junior Mike Goodman, a commuter from Chesapeake, VA. Mr. Goodman informed me that he doesn't have many problems with parking, since he arrives on campus in the early morning hours. He always is able to find a spot on the 43rd st. garage near the campus library as long as he is there before 9:30am. Mike informed me that anytime after 9:30am, it is almost impossible to find a space in that garage. The second student we interviewed was a Mr. David Lamb, a on campus resident, informed me that parking is hard to come by as a student living off of Powhatan Ave. He, and his friends have had to park all the way in the back of the Whitehurst parking lot near the ODU sailing center, which they have nicknamed "Cuba," because of the distance away from his housing building.

Another student, Brittany, who is a Junior and commutes from Chesapeake, VA, informed us upon asking what her take on the parking situation is, that she has so much trouble finding a spot that she leaves nearly an hour and a half before her class is due to begin just to make it to campus and hopefully be able to find a place to park. She also commented that she feels extremely lucky and excited if she comes upon someone who's pulling out of a spot and will be able to park there. After mentioning she feels "excited" about finding a spot, she made sure to mention how sad that sounds considering the topic of conversation was just finding a place to park on campus.

Recently Added Site Feeds...

So, the recently added site feed, will help readers of this blog stay informed with other commuters from across the world, the links provided on the right, show the most recent feeds on the Blogs that are listed. This should provide tips for commuters, and help this blog, develop information for future post. These feeds will be helpful to the readers to show how parking is not just an issue here at ODU. These also can help to give not only ideas but solutions to what can be done to prevent parking frustrations.