Parking lots at colleges and universities are some of the craziest places on earth. You have an extremely large number of people traveling in and out of campus at set times all vying for what seems to be very few decent parking spaces. As an undergraduate at Western Michigan University, I remember driving around at 3:30 pm with my lowly W sticker (commuter student permit) looking for a halfway reasonable parking spot near Sangren Hall. I would barely make it to my 4:15 pm class on time. (If any Broncos past or present are reading this, you know exactly what I mean.) I even left work extra early on class days to allow for hunting down a parking space so I could try to make it to class on time. Ah, memories.
Nothing can completely eliminate the pain of parking on campus, but here are some tips to make it a little easier.
Include time to look for a parking space in your travel time to campus. Some days you will hit it lucky and find a perfect space right away; other days will not go so well. If you plan ahead, you are saving yourself from the frustration of running late to class, which can be particularly stressful on exam days or if you have an instructor who is strict about late arrivals.
Do not park in restricted spaces. You will get busted. Maybe not the first time, maybe not the tenth time, but believe me, your luck will run out and you will have a hefty parking fine on your hands. It is true that faculty and staff parking spaces are often more convenient to campus buildings than student spaces, but there are good reasons for that. Their time deadlines to be someplace on campus are much more stringent than students' time deadlines. If you've ever complained because an instructor was late to class, consider that a possible reason was a student was unfairly taking a faculty parking space.
Many campuses give a one week grace period after the start of classes for parking permits. It's a good idea to get your parking permit as soon as possible. It is all too easy to let the grace period slide by and then get the unpleasant surprise of a ticket on your window. I am in the habit of obtaining my campus parking permits on the first or second day of class. Contrary to what many students believe, faculty and staff generally have to pay for parking permits too.
If possible, try to carpool or use public transportation to get to campus. This is not a good solution for everyone, but in some cases, it works great. Most of the campuses I have worked at have nice incentive programs to encourage people who carpool or use public transportation. Even if you do it part of the time, it helps lessen the parking crunch.
If money is a concern, do a little math to see whether you truly need to buy a full semester parking pass. For instance, if your campus daily permit rate is $1.50, you are only on a campus two days per week, and the full semester parking permit is $60.00, you will save $12.00 in a 16 week semester by using daily permit. Buying daily permits will also save you money if you are carpooling or using public transportation part of the time.
