Written by Alyssa Jackson ~ Assistant Editor
Photo of an angry driver retrieved from calmesage.com.
The University of Lynchburg community has experienced differing opinions about parking availability on campus.
Over the years, the parking on campus has changed dramatically. Before the Westover parking lot was developed for students and faculty, there seemed to be an extreme shortage of parking spaces.
English Professor Robin Bates states, “I do not struggle with parking issues on campus any longer, but I used to. For most of my time here, it was extremely frustrating trying to get to my job. Often it took a long time to find a space and then a long walk with a heavy bag. But for the past two years or so I have not had that problem. I’m sure there are still problems, but it’s better here now than it’s been in a long time.”
On the Traffic and Parking Regulations website graphs are shown that depict which spots are available for students, faculty and visitors. However some have found the restrictive spots difficult to find or have found that there is a great lack of parking spaces available for students and visitors.
Photo of the University of Lynchburg’s Campus ~ Photo retrieved from the Housing Portal.
Freshman Alyssa Woods states, “The parking on campus is tedious to say the least. There are limited parking locations for commuters who often have to walk all the way across campus to get to their class. Not to mention that many students pay for a parking permit just to walk anyways which makes it even more frustrating.”
Woods continues by saying it is a struggle for students to park somewhere other than a visitor parking space. “ Even for students living on campus. The best parking is visitor parking but there’s always a sense of guilt when you choose to park there, some sort of reorganization seems necessary.”
Many visitors that have come to the campus have also found a lot of problems with parking. Some have complained about the lack of proper directions to which parking lots they are allowed to park in.
For example, parents struggling on parent weekend or bringing their children to their dorms for the year. Others are also disappointed by the lack of many handicapped parking spots.
Parent Evita Johnson struggles with finding visitor parking, noting that when an open spot appears available it often has a faculty reservation sign on it.
“Then on top of it, they do not have enough handicapped parking. In order to visit any of our students, there is no visiting parking at any dorms. It’s all student’s parking, which if we park there we will get ticketed,” says Johnson.
Other university community members have had complaints about the number of faculty and staff parking spots. They believe that this is rather unfair to the residents on campus as they need to park whilst living in their dorms.
In addition to this visitors struggle to identify what parking lots are for faculty and students. Many have struggled with receiving tickets because they are left with nowhere else to park, or they felt that the parking designation was not clear enough.
Junior Nasiyah Ivory states, “The fact that there’s more parking spaces for staff than there are for the students that actually reside on campus. I feel as though the parking lot should be accessible for the students that have paid to park there.”
Ivory continues, “ I should not have to struggle to find a parking place at a school that I pay half my life for.”
The University has faced a multitude of complaints about the parking, involving students, faculty and visitors. Both Woods and Ivory have faced issues with finding parking spots, and many more students, and visitors have complained about the lack of parking.
To see more information about parking on campus visit https://www.lynchburg.edu/student-life/campus-safety-and-security/vehicles-on-campus/traffic-and-parking-regulations/.
