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Parking and Traffic Disservices
One Friday, over some refreshing “Technical Session” beverages, I was invited to a house party. But this rant is not about the house party; it’s about what happened after.
At the house party, noticing that my friend was getting horribly drunk, I started thinking about how I was going to get home. There were two choices: try and get a cab in the middle of nowhere on a Friday night, or take my friend’s car home. I went with the latter, saving myself the $30+ and my friend the long walk the next day to pick up his car. And here is where the problems begin.
You see, unlike some other campuses I’ve lived at, the U of C has no visitor parking for residence. Well, I should say there is no obvious visitor parking. None of the hundreds of memos, advertisements, announcements and what-have-you from Residence Services have ever mentioned visitor parking passes. Moreover, in the past, RAs have told me that there is no visitor parking. Looking around the parking lot, I see there is a 30-minute loading zone, a small group of metered stalls, and 3 reserved lots. I’m not waking up in 3 hours to feed a meter, so I decide to bite the bullet and park in the metered area.
Back at my previous residence, they did have a small visitor parking area (8 parking stalls). You could park there over-night, at no charge, but you couldn’t park for longer than 24-hours. So, you could leave a car over-night, swing past the on-call RA’s room the next-day at a reasonable time, and pick up a parking pass. Of course, this policy was suspended during move-in / move-out. But that is quite understandable as those stalls, most located at the building’s main entrances, were used for loading zones.
If you knew ahead of time that you needed a parking pass, you could get one. But, more importantly, it was easy to get one retroactively or on very short notice. Not so at the U of C.
Waking up Saturday at noon, I find a nice piece of paper under the left-front wiper informing me that I have been fined $30 for parking at an expired meter (only $20 if I pay within 7 days). Parking and Traffic Services is in the Olympic Volunteer Centre, as the ticket tells me, and I can pay during the regular office hours of 7:30 am to 5:00 pm, Monday–Friday. It’s not too far off-campus, so I figure on just walking there in a couple days.
Thursday morning, the morning chill starts getting to me as I pass the Chinook Arch. At this point, I realize I have forgotten my travel mug of coffee on the counter at home (for the third time this week). Sigh. Walking towards the McMahon Stadium, it turns out I also cannot cut across the baseball diamonds as there is an 8-foot high fence around the perimeter. Finally arriving at the OVC, I proceed to what looks like the main doors, underneath an awning emblazoned with “The Red & White Club.” But, alas, the first door I try is locked. So are the three next to it. Somewhat puzzled, I start looking for other doors, assuming that this club isn’t connected to the rest of the building. There is a service door, but no other entrances. Wandering back to the front of the building I notice something in the snow. It’s a fallen-over sandwich board sign with a university logo that reads “Effective October 22, Parking and Traffic Services has moved to the Dining Centre (DC 018). We apologize for any inconvenience.” Grumble. At least I can swing past my room and grab that coffee I forgot.
Fortified by coffee goodness, I make my way to the Dining Centre and the temporary home of Parking and Traffic Services. I wait at the desk for several minutes as the receptionist yammers away on the phone. While I’m waiting, I notice a wall of rather plain memos, one of which catches my eye. Apparently the rates for residence day, 3-day, and 1-week guest parking passes has gone up. Guest parking passes? Since when have these been available? At least long enough for them to bump up the rates, but why did no one else know of these? Having dealt with RAs in the past, I should have been less shocked that they knew nothing of guest passes. At least this memo wasn’t on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of the Leopard.” Just in the basement of the Dining Centre, in an out-of-the-way hallway in a room that’s still under construction.
Intrigued, I ask the secretary about this guest pass. Apparently you can buy them from Parking or Residence Services. But what if these places are closed, as they are on weekends? Hesitantly, she says that Residence Services probably has them available from somewhere else, but that I should check with them. So I wander down the hall to stand in yet another line. Reaching the front, the secretary informs me that, yes, I can purchase day, 3-day, and 1-week passes from Conference Housing over in Cascade Hall. Are they open all the time? No, just from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. When do the parking meters start running? 7:30 am. When do they stop? 9:00 pm.
So, you can get parking passes, but if you miss the 8:00 pm deadline, you have to feed the meter at the wonderful rate of $2 / 45 minutes. And if you want to avoid the $30 ticket the next day, you have to drag yourself out of bed just before 7:30 am, feed the meter, and then wait around for a half-hour until Conference Services opens.
Brilliant.
Alan Silvester
December 12, 2006
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