Parking Services: Additional parking not necessary
Officials, data show CMU has more parking spots than Princeton, EMU
When running late and short on quarters, the parking lots of Central Michigan University can seem cumbersome and hard to navigate.
At times, it seems that there are more students than parking spaces. CMU's campus, however, features more parking per students than most other universities.
From 2012 to 2013 alone, more than 200 parking spaces were added to university lots. An additional 22 were added in 2014, according to CMU Parking Services.
As of the 2009 update to the Campus Master Plan, which in the future proposes moving parking to the edges of campus to make CMU more pedestrian friendly, the university still has more parking spaces per student than both Eastern Michigan and Princeton universities.
The amount of commuter parking permits sold since Aug. 31 tops off at 4836, amounting to more than half of the 7,655 student permits sold this year. The amount of parking spaces available in Lot C, as of 2013 is 4,216.
Despite the numbers showing that CMU does have a surplus of spots all over campus, students still believe there to be limited parking. That assertion might have more to do with the consequences of using the parking lots without a permit or not enough change for meters: Expensive tickets.
Will Damian, Holland, senior, said the metered parking lots by Larzelere Hall or his main source of accruing tickets. As a commuter, he said that there are times where he will be away from his car for hours at a time and come back to a slew of tickets.
“There were several times were I would get like three parking citations within the same day because I forgot about my car,” Damian said.
He admits many of his tickets were due to parking poorly to save time, but Damian believes that the ticketing system is somewhat flawed.
“I would end up parking overnight, I’d forget about my car, and then come back in the morning and there’d be two maybe three parking citations,” he said. “(Ticketing alerts) just got to be more instantaneous. The courtesy notices are great, but not when they happen after the fact.”
Despite the fact that parking may be harder to find in the commuter lot, parking is more than abundant elsewhere throughout the university.
“There may not be one right next to where (students) want to be but there’s room,” said an official from parking services. “We can’t control how many live off campus. So when students come and there’s not room, it may not be close but there is always room in the (Student Activity Center) parking lots.”
Damian feels similarly, even if it’s at his own time’s expense.
“If I have to walk a little bit farther (to class) then fine,” he said. “I’ve never been in a situation where I’m like ‘Ugh there are no spots on campus.' There’s always a place to park. Convenience is another story.”
