Any student with a car on campus would probably agree that the parking at Rensselaer really needs some work. It does not seem to be as big of an issue for students who live close to campus, but for those of us braving the off-campus apartment world, there is almost no accommodation. However, the fault does not entirely lie with Parking and Transportation.
Every day I go through a 20-minute ritual trying to find a parking space. If I am on my way to class, I try to find a space on Peoples Avenue or Sage Avenue. Since Sage is impossible to park on, I utilize the highly top-secret shortcut that loops around Blaw-Knox toward Peoples. There are usually a handful of spaces between Mr. Big Truck and Mrs. Station Wagon, conveniently located on the steepest part of the hill. Believe me; people will roll into your car and drive away pretending that they did not just scrape off all your paint.
The alternative to this is praying that one of the seven non-metered parking spaces in front of Blaw-Knox is vacant. There’s a trick to these though—Parking and Transportation devised a clever plan to issue more parking tickets. If you try to park in North Lot before 5 pm and you do not have a transponder, you obviously will not be getting through the gate. Instead, there is a sign saying, “If you do not have a permit, turn left here.” This is where Parking and Transportation’s cleverness comes into play. I fell victim to this trick, and of course, I turned left. I parked in one of the aforementioned seven spaces and returned to find a $31 ticket for “no permit displayed.” The sign indicating that it is a permit lot is hidden on the other side of the building, so I naturally didn’t notice it until I was leaving.
While Parking and Transportation has a hand in my disdain for on-campus parking, the jerks who do not know how to park anger me the most. On days when I need to be in the Union, I try to find parking on the side streets if it is before 5 pm. Nothing irritates me more than spotting a space ahead only to find out that someone is positioned just far enough back to make the area unusable. In case you didn’t know folks, cars do not bite, and they will not run into other cars when they are parked and turned off. Take the few extra seconds to pull ahead three feet so someone can park behind you.
The next obvious question is: Well, why don’t you just get a parking permit? There are two places for commuter students to park, and neither option is all that great. The cheaper of the two—the Houston Field House lot—is on the other side of the world from academic campus. Yes, there are shuttles running back and forth, but no one likes waiting for them to come. If you are on a tight schedule, there is no room for relying on other people to get you to class on time. The second option is the College Avenue parking garage, which is not feasible for me, because it costs $350 before taxes.
In order to fix the parking issues, everyone needs to put forth the effort to make a change. Parking and Transporation could probably put up better signs or put them in more ideal locations. Students should take consideration for others and try to leave room for other cars. The Institute could use some of the half of Troy it owns to add more parking areas. Whatever the solution may be, everyone needs to work on it and get it done sooner rather than later.
