A car pulls out of the newly built Binkley Garage located at the corner of Binkley and Airline. (Dave Travers)
Running late for class and spiraling continuously upward in a parking garage, students search for a space to park. Passing SUV after SUV crammed into compact only spots until breaking into the sunlight of the roof of the garage, and with the sunlight, a sense of futility, is a situation with which many SMU students are familiar.
The new Binkley garage was completed over the summer and opened for student use this fall. With 850 new spots for students, faculty and visitors, many thought that the pressure would be alleviated and parking would no longer be an issue.
Many students feel this is not the case, and despite a new garage and fewer parking permits being sold than last year, multiple factors are still making parking an issue with students.
Senior Brett Oswald has been commuting since he was a freshman and feels the parking situation has not improved with the new garage.
“[The new garage] really hasn’t helped, I still try and park in Airline [garage] before class and there are always cars backed up all the way to the roof,” Oswald said. “It is ridiculous, I usually give up and park in the commuter lot.”
The problem is not that there has been a spike in freshman enrollment figures, as enrollment has maintained a static level, declining only by 92 students since 2005 according to SMU admissions data.
From that Park ‘N Pony director Mark Rhodes said that because of the consistent number of students attending SMU, parking permits as well have stayed relatively constant.
Rhodes said that to date, the Park ‘N Pony office has sold 4,832 total parking passes including all students, faculty and staff. That figure, Rhodes said, will increase in January when students who come for the spring semester only buy permits, but should be comparable to last fiscal year’s figure of 5,444 permits.
In addition, it seems that more people are choosing to not park on campus and ride the shuttle service “The Mustang Express.” Park ‘N Pony has recently added a third shuttle to the route to decrease ride time and riders per shuttle.
Rhodes said that even with the additional shuttle they are often just as full, representing nearly a 30 percent increase in ridership. Rhodes said that the increase is more than likely due to rising fuel prices.
“I know at least for me it saves me the gas of commuting back and fourth and also the parking fee I would have to pay monthly,” Rhodes said. “That’s probably what it is for most people, high fuel prices along with the apparent parking issues with students they may be choosing to ride for convenience.”
So with a new garage, no additional parking permits being sold, and more students and faculty seemingly riding the shuttle, parking should no longer be an issue, but for many students, it remains one of their top morning headaches.
“When I drive to school in the morning I find myself just praying for a spot on the roof because I know that’s probably the best I can get,” commuter student Bruce Van Buren said.
One of the issues plaguing the free flow of students into parking spaces is the sunken issue of construction and space reclassification robbing students of precious parking spots.
Rhodes said that construction on the visitor lot by the Airline garage robs 64 spots from visitors and forces them into other lots and parking garages. In addition, 186 spots were lost to the demolition of the Binkley apartments, 50 plus student spots were lost to the reclassification of the Boaz lot to faculty only, and another 40 student and faculty spots were lost with the reclassification of the spots lining Binkley avenue to metered.
Also, when construction on the Bush Library starts, an additional 80 plus spots will be lost in the commuter lot.
When it is all totaled up, over 400 spots have been lost or reclassified to construction negating from the total of 564 all university spots added by the new parking garage.
In addition Rhodes said that many of the parking problems stem from the myriad of popular class times in such a condensed period, saying that parking peaks between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and in that time the blanket total of 5700 inventory spots (the number used by Park ‘N Pony office) is eclipsed by the large masses of students coming to campus for class.
There is also the problem that parking creates out of itself and compounding into low turnover. The issue that once a resident has found a good spot, or has no real need to leave campus, their car can remain in the same spot for days, leading to low turnover of many spots during peak times of the day.
“When I get a really good spot in front of my dorm, I am so afraid to move it because I may not get a spot when I come back,” first year student Elizabeth Bandera said. “I almost walked to the grocery store just to avoid having to try and find another spot.”
Rhodes said that the reclassification of the Binkley avenue spots to metered was to help increase turnover throughout the day and not have residents parked there for days. But in reality, the low turnover was just shifted to the parking garages and all university spots, impacting commuter students.
So even with the new garage, parking may remain a problem on campus until construction has been completed ,freeing up the coveted parking spots, and taking a low turnover problem out of the picture.
