It's been talked about many times. No one is ever happy with it. But the disaster that is ASU parking has always been worth complaining about, and the situation is only getting worse.
By and large, the land of the Sun Devils is run as smoothly as possible, considering there are upwards of 46,000 students attending main campus. But parking will always be our school's Achilles' heel, and the thing that many ASU students dread most about their day.
Every day as many as 16,000 students must park in the giant, distant space known as Lot 59. These students then face a 15-minute walk to their classrooms, often while braving 100-degree temperatures.
ASU administrators claim that the infamous 'Flash' bus solves the problem. But more often than not, a walk to your nearest bus stop is required, followed by a five- to 10-minute wait for the next bus and then a five-minute walk from your stop to your classroom.
And while administrators conveniently park in covered spaces on campus, the students are left with little alternatives to Lot 59, unless they ditch class.
If we are rushed, sometimes there is no choice but to park illegally, and Parking and Transit swoops in for the kill. Ticketing students is nothing short of a business at ASU. The easily accessible illegal parking spaces are the cheese, and the countless number of parking citations issued each year is the mousetrap.
Once ASU students buy a parking decal, they are given a lengthy list of rules and regulations. First on the list, it is explained that an average parking ticket will cost about $25, which seems fair enough. Then, cruise down the list, and you'll discover that a parking official is allowed to issue you a $100 ticket -- even if you weren't in a handicap space. Such rules border on extortion.
So you want to complain? Go ahead. Parking and Transit has its lines well rehearsed. They say not all parking is convenient, but at least it is available. Well, they are right if spending 20 minutes driving around Lot 59 just to find a space constitutes available.
They then tell you how parking is cheaper than at other Pac-10 schools. But there are just a number of problems with that statement, namely ASU is bigger than its rivals, and ASU is very much a commuter school, more so than the majority of its counterparts in the Pac.
Just when you thought the misery couldn't get any worse, and you'd think the University would start to add more parking, it has decided to take more away as construction projects continue to be built over existing lots. Soon, more and more parking restrictions will follow, and some students won't have the ability to park on campus at all.
And even though there are few solutions, we at The State Press believe something should be done to help the problem, or at least not contribute to it. That is, unless Michael Crow and other officials wouldn't mind parking in Lot 59 with us.
