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Let's not shoot the messenger(me)...

Clay Ryan‏ @ClayRyan1

UA Board of Trustees Physical Properties Cmte just approved new intramural fields on parking lot across from new FB ops facility #blazeon

Across where? Where the dentist's office is?

(09-14-2017 04:42 PM)Smaug Wrote: [ -> ]Across where? Where the dentist's office is?

Nope.

Across the street on the backside of the facility.

The exact spot where the OCS was going to go.


Good news is if we have to eventually go to plan B it will be easily bulldozed up.

(09-14-2017 04:45 PM)demiveeman Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-14-2017 04:42 PM)Smaug Wrote: [ -> ]Across where? Where the dentist's office is?

Nope.

Across the street on the backside of the facility.

Got it. Thanks.

(09-14-2017 04:46 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]The exact spot where the OCS was going to go.


Good news is if we have to eventually go to plan B it will be easily bulldozed up.

Bingo!

(09-14-2017 04:46 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]The exact spot where the OCS was going to go.


Good news is if we have to eventually go to plan B it will be easily bulldozed up.

This

Much better than if they had tried to put the new school of business there.

I've heard some complaint about this. Let's remember that the students voted and approved an athletics fee. This is a nice addition for the students. I hope more parking no is next....plenty of good places for a stadium. All will work out if we all do our part.

Yes, administration has dropped the bucket on making sure enough parking spaces are available to handle student population.
& this is beyond just the normal complaining by students over parking.

The CAS building & other projects did nothing to help the parking situation.

(09-15-2017 01:59 PM)the_blazerman Wrote: [ -> ]Yes, administration has dropped the bucket on making sure enough parking spaces are available to handle student population.
& this is beyond just the normal complaining by students over parking.

The CAS building & other projects did nothing to help the parking situation.

They have offsite parking was bus transportation

That would be worse than parking 5 blocks away and walking to me though.

Would be interesting to see how much that is being used.

I can't speak on the issue due to my connections with it, but suffice to say...I don't think think parking is as big of an issue as everybody thinks it is...at least not for the typical reasons people think it is.

The number of students who live on campus now is WAY higher than when most of us went to school there. So, in theory, that should require fewer spots needed. Of course, there are more students and the available lots are further away. However, most colleges don't have parking that was as convenient as UAB parking was when I went there.

I think our parking situation is fairly normal for a big university. People need to expect to walk far to get to class. That is the price of a peaceful, beautiful campus.

Not sure why those who live on campus decide to roam around to find parking spots.

Bottom line:

UAB has enough parking spots. They don't have enough that people actually want to park in.

You can park in the commuter lots and get to pretty much any undergrad building within 15-20 minutes via bus. Which is less time than the students that complain most about parking spend trying to find a spot.

If you think you should be able to park immediately next to the building your class is in, and drive from class to class, then just leave UAB. Parking is not bad or hard to find if you are a reasonable person who realizes UAB is an urban campus in an urban center. There is a UAB-provided and exclusive transit system and there is an incredible amount of walkable housing already online and under construction that both employees and students can live in.

(09-15-2017 05:11 PM)demiveeman Wrote: [ -> ]Bottom line:

UAB has enough parking spots. They don't have enough that people actually want to park in.

You can park in the commuter lots and get to pretty much any undergrad building within 15-20 minutes via bus. Which is less time than the students that complain most about parking spend trying to find a spot.

Exactly. People spend an hour just circling lots. They first try the most convenient lot then keep expanding their perimeter until they find one. Whereas if they just drove to the huge offsite lot on 5th Ave S and took the bus they'd save 45 minutes. You aren't going to be able to park next door to your classroom.

But I also think UAB needs to move to a tiered parking permit structure. If you want the most convenient parking in the best decks, then you can pay double the price of how much it costs to park in the remote lots. And UAB should only sell as much of the more expensive parking as there is spaces in those decks so people that buy the better pass can pull in the deck at any time and know that there's a guaranteed spot for them there.

When I was a student in the mid 80's, parking was one of the reasons I had motorcycle - pull right up on the curb in front of the building. Can't say that happens now other than the rent a bike set ups around town.

of the 3 major universities i've been at, UAB had BY FAR the best parking situation

A study of parking problems at public schools from high schools through colleges and universities is a study in American family affluence levels over the years. When I was a teenager (1950s), most families had only one car. The two car family became more common during the late 50s and into the 60s (I became my mother's chaufer when I got my DL in 1957) and few high schools had many student parking spaces. From 1960s through the 1990s, cars were relatively cheap and used cars often sold for 3 digit prices (My new 1980 Honda Civic was bought for $4100 from Bart Starr Honda in Hoover and my new 1988 Isuzu P'up cost $9,000).

Many Post Secondary schools at that time did not allow freshmen to bring cars to campus and then the use of variously colored parking decals became more common ways to limit them among the rest. UAB's early history as a commuter school meant parking was an early problem. As the campus expanded to the west, more land was cleared and made parking much easier. Now that its enrollment is moving into the 20,000 range, and more land is being consumed for dorms and classroom buildings, it may join the other schools as having a parking problem since the remaining land has become more valuable than parking space provides.

Also to be kept in mind is that more students result in more faculty. One common faculty "perk" is a reserved parking space convenient to the classroom. That reserved space may come at the expense of student parking spaces. .