Using beach side lots, expanding bus hours, increasing carpooling and limiting permits issued: the multifaceted solution to City College’s perceived parking problem is well in place.
The Channels urges students to take advantage of the already available alternatives to driving thus reducing the number of cars on campus. We also recommend the college help students by reducing the number of permits sold and effectively lobbying for more MTD service.
While congestion and tardiness continue to be a problem, numerous spaces are still available in the Leadbetter Beach lots across Shoreline Drive. Students can park in the beach side lots with a City College parking pass, no harbor pass needed.
Sure some students will be unwilling to make the uphill trek with their heavy backpacks, but it’s only a seven-minute walk to class. We should all make sacrifices to better this campus and a short walk is hardly a sacrifice. Students have reached a level of laziness that has overtaken their ability to see the lot for the spaces.
Full-time students already pay $19 for a transportation sticker along with regular tuition. It’s time for those stuck in traffic to start getting more bang for their buck by riding the bus.
The number of students riding the MTD express line from City College to Isla Vista and the shuttle from downtown to the college increased 18.5 and 35 percent respectively last year. This increase in riders is evidence that the service is valued. It’s time to beef up the late-night routes to Isla Vista for students taking night courses and provide more frequent shuttles for students working downtown.
It is true students have commitments off campus that require speedy transportation, but on off days there’s no reason students can’t take advantage of the services currently available. Students working downtown have a short ten minute bike ride to work.
Although it can be tough to meet people to coordinate carpools with, linking SBCC Online to Traffic Solutions, an online carpool coordinator, is an excellent way to eliminate this challenge. This problem is not limited to students. Just as they are constantly bombarded by ads to carpool, teachers should be too.
Students also need to be educated on the real-world impact of driving cars. Let’s see some speakers scheduled and information distributed with local, tangible effects of automotive emissions and oil consumption.
While we plead with students to make wiser choices, City College must also do its part. Nearly four times as many permits are sold than parking spaces available. The Channels challenges the administration to sell fewer permits in the interest of students, faculty and staff.
While this may be unpopular with students wanting permits, a permit without a space to accompany it is useless.
Sure the perceived problem is complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Be smart and park in available spaces instead of waiting in ridiculous lines. Take the bus when you don’t have work. Carpool when you can. Don’t do it because we told you to, it’s the right thing for all of us.