In yesterday’s Lantern, the article “Big trouble in little parking lot” said Ohio State Transportation and Parking Services sells about 40,000 parking passes for the 30,000 parking spaces around campus. While it does have a $14 million budget to build, this is highway robbery for something that is supposed to be guaranteed.
Most students who buy parking passes do so as a matter of convenience. Why walk 30 minutes both ways to get to and from class when you can spend $150 for a pass and get to class in five minutes? The problem with the way Transportation and Parking has it set up is that students can spend a couple of hundred dollars on a pass and then have to park farther away than it would have taken to walk.
Sarah Blouch, director of Transportation and Parking, said even though there are 10,000 more passes than spaces, roughly 3,000 spaces are left available during peak school hours. The only problem is that most of those available spaces are in unpopular locations, like the West Campus lots or spaces behind the French Field House.
Students don’t pay an exorbitant amount of money to park in a place that they feel is unsafe or too far from their classes. The Veterinary students pay for their passes so they can park right next to the new Veterinary building, not so they can park out at West Campus and then take a bus to their classes. Of course, if a student chooses to park illegally in a full lot as opposed to going to a lot that is not ideal, then a heavy parking fine could ensue. Then the student who paid for about five times as much for a C pass than a WC pass will be hit with an extra payment.
Because Transportation and Parking said there are still spaces left over at even the most popular hours, it does not see this issue as a problem. There is a problem, though. If a student bought the pass as a matter of convenience, but spends 30 minutes looking for a parking space, then the parking pass is no longer convenient for the driver.
It is up to Transportation and Parking to make it convenient for the driver. If so many students are willing to fork over a bunch of cash for a pass, Ohio State should see how many students would still want a pass if the cost of one doubled. The A, B, C system does not work now because too many students get a C pass — which is generally the highest classification an undergraduate can get.
While mini-classification spin-offs like WC and CX exist for students, there is actually very little difference as to where people can park. There should be a pass system where if a student is willing to pay double to park, then there can be a special pass and system that sets them apart for those who are not willing to pay as much.
It is expensive to run Ohio State as both a learning institution and a business, but squeezing as much money as possible out of students is not the answer — especially when it involves something so simple and inherent as parking.
