WHY???....

So I have yet another frustration with Old Dominion University parking services. Not only do I have to deal with the daily struggle of actually finding a parking spot, but now I have to deal with major roads being blocked off due to events held at the Ted Constant Center. Now I understand that when the shows are Kid oriented it is not safe for cars to be zooming by, but that is what the traffic cops are there for to stop traffic while the children cross. However for some strange reason ODU decides to block off the entire streets, causing us drivers to have to drive all the way around just to get to our buildings. At first it doesn't seem like a big deal to have a road blocked off until you realized that it causes more traffic, not that Hampton Blvd needs any more. Hopefully ODU parking services will realize that blocking off these streets are not worth it, because they ultimately cause more problems. Not to mention that when they block off these streets they are also blocking access to two parking garages. Which once again causes parking problems. It becomes a domino effect for people who are trying to park in the limited spaces that we have.

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.

Get it together

So in reference to my theme about the parking situations on campus at ODU, I ran into another reoccurring problem in the parking lot of the Village Apartments. The entrance gate had been broken once again! It seems that on an average of once a week someone breaks the gate, so you can just drive in, instead of having to swipe your card to open it. This leads to anyone being able to park in the lot, which takes away from the people who actually paid to park there.

Especially since this particular lot between 43rd st and 45th st is located behind most of the shops in Monarch way, a lot of the patrons can easily park there. Especially at night when they are going to the bar Boar's Nest. This is another concern for safety, since anyone can park in the lot there is no telling who these people are. Since there have been several incidents recently which attacks on ODU students, I would think that campus security would be doing everything in their power to keep areas safe. Having the parking gate broken could be seen as an invitation to strangers to come onto our campus. Or letting anyone be able to park in the parking lot, taking the spots that students with decals paid for.

An Hour or Less...and it's FREE!

It seems that the City of Norfolk has been clued in onto one of the hot spots of free parking on campus. 43rd street at the corner of Killam Ave. has always been free parking, until the other day. I walked out and saw that they had posted new signs stating that this was now "1 hour parking"...which i was confused about why it was not 2 hours, but that's another story. Normally there would be at least 20 to 30 cars parked along this street, so I was very interested on seeing how they felt about this.

The first person i came across was a sophomore named Chris, who was a commuter. He said that he parked on that street because he refused to buy the ridiculously high priced parking decal. He also thought that it was not fair that people who are only part-time students don't have a special area where they can park for cheap.

The second person I interviewed was a senior named Ashley, who was a resident of the Village Apartments. She said she parked on that street instead of buying a decal mainly because it was convenient. She didn't see the purpose of paying all the money for a decal when there was free parking next to her building. She seemed sad that the street was no longer free and was contemplating on whether or not she was going to buy a decal or just look for another free street.

It will be interesting to see how other students are going to react to this new parking restriction. However, there is one thing that I am sure of, Norfolk will be giving out a lot of tickets to those students who don't recognize that their "hot spot" is gone.

The Grass is NOT Always Greener on the Other Side....

My frustration with ODU's parking actually became a positive for me this weekend when I went to go visit my friend at GMU. They have it way worse that we do with their parking. Not only do their decals cost almost double what ours cost, you are not even guaranteed a parking decal!! That is crazy. Then the parking lots are spread around the campus, but not even near the dorms....you have to park in the lot and either walk about a mile OR catch the shuttle bus to your building. I could NOT image having to catch a shuttle from my car to my dorm. This visit actually gave me an appreciation for ODU's parking BUT does not mean that I am in no way happy with the parking situation...

Same idea...different problem!

In response to my frustration of inadequate parking at ODU, I found a guy who blogged on the Global Awareness Blog website about having TOO MANY parking lots and the effects of it.

Well, at least in Indiana’s Tippiecanoe County … parking lots outnumber people nearly three to one. In fact, for its 155,000 residents - this little county in the Midwest has 355,000 parking lots.

So, what is this post doing in a global warming awareness blog? Simple - parking lots aren’t as innocent as they seem. In fact, once you read below, you will find out just how much of a havoc these things can cause to our environment.

His viewpoints are a concern with Global Warming, which I completely agree wit, and just how much damage is done to the enviornment when a parking lot is made. However with a surplus of parking there should be nothing to complain about. Here at ODU with have a deficit of parking lots, pretty much the opposite with 3 people per 1 parking space. It's pretty much a luck of the draw if you are going to get a parking spot anywhere near you have to go. I like how he gave a solution that would benefit both the environment and the people. Yet,I wonder if he was refering to actual parking lots or parking garages?! ...something to think about!!

Solid as a "Rock"

Walking around Old Dominion University's campus you notice the main things, like the buildings, the trees, the big monarch fountain; however we forget to stop and notice the simple things. Well that was what I had to do for our scavenger hunt. After being at this place for 4 years I thought I knew just about every nook and cranny of this campus, yet it took me a while to location this place. I was familiar with the location of the place, but when I got there I was stumped. I saw the trees, the leaves scattered everywhere, the pathways all leading to different directions. Then I noticed a big rock, something I have passed almost every single day for 4 years but never took the time to stop and look at it. It had a bunch of writing on it, which meant that I would have to actually stand in front of it while people were trying to walk around me to get to class. Kind of embarrassing! It was actually a pretty cool rock, it has all the names of the fraternities and the sororities with their founding years on it. It seems like this should be a part of ODU history, something that should be shown on campus tours for future greek members!!