CAMPUS CAR CRUSH

Watching students drive the quarter mile from their apartment to the University of Maine campus, only to spend more time circling the lot looking for a parking space than it took to “commute” to school, it is no wonder there is a parking problem on the Orono campus. The key is to get more students out of their cars and walking or riding to class.

One way to do this would be to raise parking fees so that students have to think about whether it makes sense to drive to campus and hope to find a scarce parking space. The annual fee for students and staff is a paltry $35, $20 to park in perimeter lots. A university transportation survey, conducted earlier this year by the Transportation Planning Department for the city of Fort Collins, Colo., and the Department of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University, found that the mean parking fee for students living on campus was $91 a year and $83 for students living off-campus. The survey was of 18 schools ranging from the University of Massachusetts to Purdue University.

Another review done by Rutgers University in New Jersey found that some universities charged as much as $900 (the University of Pittsburgh) a year for parking, but most charged between $100 (Rutgers) and $300 (University of Nebraska).

UMaine’s fees are so low that students are not discouraged from driving to campus even if they could get to and from classes more quickly on a bicycle given the traffic backups in Orono and Old Town during peak hours. Charging $200 for a parking permit would cause some students to look more favorably on their bicycle or their feet to get them to class. A significantly higher fee would also discourage some students who live in dorms from bringing their cars to campus, thereby freeing up more spaces for those who drive daily from Bangor or farther. For those who truly commute to the university, rides on the Bangor area bus system are free.

One concern with raising parking fees is that it would unfairly burden underpaid staff. University officials should wonder why they pay people to work there and then charge them for the “fringe” benefit of parking. Parking for faculty and staff should be free and in gated lots set aside for their use.

In addition to raising fees, the university should consider the use of shuttle buses to bring students and staff from distant parking lots. Regularly scheduled buses would avert unpleasant walks in inclement weather while improving safety by eliminating walks through remote segments of campus.