A prime parking spot is a prized thing

"When you're in a car pool group, you have your own reserved spot. Not even the president has his own reserved spot."

According to an article on Insider Higher Ed, parking on college campuses have become a bigger issue than officials could have ever imagined. Several colleges have tried tp fix this problem by reserving spaces for car pooling and even eco-friendly cars; however some people think that they are taking this too far.

For three years Augsburg College, in Minneapolis had created a car pooling service where there were reserved spots located on the edge of campus. There wasn't a big demand until officials decided to move the reserved spots into the middle of campus. There was a drastic change from one to five in just the fall. John Pack, Augsburg’s director of public safety stated, “We know from what the car-poolers have told us that moving those reserved spots to the heart of campus, and adding that convenience factor, has been a big draw.”

While changes haven’t been drastic, a number of colleges have put in place small numbers of “car pool only” or “hybrid only” parking spots to encourage greener driving habits . De Anza College, a two-year institution in California, has reserved 13 for alternative fuel vehicles, which must have a factory insignia declaring them hybrid, bio-diesel, or electric vehicle. Also Western Michigan University has 15 spots for alternative fuel vehicles by its College of Health and Human Services.

Colleges' policies on parking, of course, have been just a small piece of their overall efforts to encourage more eco-friendly habits.