The red blinking lights flash before you, taunting you in the game of rush hour. Waiting behind the DART guard rails, you glance at your watch. After what seems like an eternity you look at it again only to realize that less than 10 seconds have gone by. The safety rails let up and your speed over the tracks.
Driving across Central Expressway you begin to panic- your palms are sweaty and a slight eye twitch is beginning to develop. You’re running late to class and have approximately five minutes before you are supposed to be sitting in your seat. As you enter the Hilltop, the hysteria reaches an all time high. You have no idea where you are going to park.
SMU students have to deal with parking problems on a daily basis. From not being able to find an open spot to getting your car broken into, parking is a real issue.
Last semester, SMU brought two independent consulting firms to evaluate the parking issues on campus. The university originally said that they would release the studies results in May. It is now October, and these results still haven’t been given to the public.
Safety on campus goes hand in hand with the parking problem. First-year males are required to park in the Dedman Three Lot. Over the semester, crime in that area has doubled. Cars are being broken into and vandalized on almost a daily basis. This week, the police activity log reported that a car had been stolen. With the increase in parking rates this year, where are those fee’s going? Obviously not to patrolling the garages.
Off-campus parking presents a whole new set of problems, including limited parking time and that motorcycle Nazi cop hovering to chalk your car tires and ticket you the minute the allotted time expires. If your car isn’t ticketed or towed, you still have dodge Highland Park carpool mothers while crossing the street. If the university offered more convenient parking, students would not feel the need to park off-campus.
The Student Senate’s Student Issues committee along with SMU police department is developing a parking class to educate first-year students on where to park. This class is a waste of money and time. The problem in not that people don’t know where to park, the problem is that there is nowhere to park.
Students want parking that is close to their residence halls and classes and is safe. The university’s goal is to move to a perimeter parking plan, eliminating heavy traffic flow though the center of campus. To be successful in this plan, there must be more garages, especially on the northwest side of campus.
