The Daily Campus

As an off-campus student I can empathize with the author's arguments - I commute from Coventry every day and battle to find parking as well... Actually I really don't have any trouble finding it at all - every morning I park in F-lot and go to work and then at mid-day walk to my grad office near Horsebarn Hill. There has never been a day in my life at UConn - and I've been here for six years, four of which have been as an off-campus student - that I've not been able to find a parking spot. Yes, often this means planning and walking a decent amount around campus - but I consider both of these useful tools (planning and walking that is) to lead a productive life. As a grad student my research focuses on studying the impact of impervious cover on streams and therfore our water quality in Connecticut. The basic findings of the entire body of literature on this subject is that more impervious cover (aka parking lots and other things that rain water can go down into and instead runs off of) the worse off our streams are (and therefore access to clean, 'drinkable' water). So call me a tree hugger or environmentalist, but the one thing no one on this planet can deny is that without clean water there simply cannot be people. So rather than buy bottled water to ensure your water is clean, why not start closer to home and protect the water that we already have by not paving over our watersheds for convenience of parking? So back to the problem at hand... yes making yet another parking lot is one option. Two others that I would suggest first would be carpooling and bicycling - both reduce traffic and gasoline use (the author's main argument for a new lot) but also these options reduce the need for parking itself on campus and therefore reduce the demand for/increase the apparent availability of existing spots. Then again this option would require that we do the work rather than whine about someone else not making life easier for us...

Trust me, there is parking, you just have to find it. F-Lot is always an option and W-Lot

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ARTICLE REGARDING THE VERY REAL NEED FOR ADDITIONAL TRANSPORTATION TO AND FROM CAMPUS FOR STUDENTS. RIDESHARING AND BICYCLING IS NOT ALWAYS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE WITH LATE NIGHT CLASSES AND WEATHER CONDITIONS. PURCHASING A CAR WAS NEVER A THOUGHT WHEN DECIDING TO ATTEND UCONN BUT AFTER MOVING OFF CAMPUS THIS YEAR AND FINDING OUT THERE IS NO WAY TO GET TO AND FROM SCHOOL, THERE IS NO CHOICE BUT TO PURCHASE A CAR. THERE IS A REAL NEED FOR EXPANDING THE SHUTTLE BUS ROUTES TO OFF CAMPUS HOUSING. THIS WILL ALLEVIATE THE NEED FOR ADDITIONAL PARKING LOTS AND HELP MAINTAIN THE FEEL OF A SELF-CONTAINED CAMPUS COMMUNITY.

I have no issue with everyone saying that we need more routes for the off-campus population. I understand it would be difficult and cost prohibitive, but at the end of the day the off-campus student populations are still students and still deserve more off campus routes or more buses.

As for additional parking, please. There's plenty of it. The problem is people are too lazy to walk from F-Lot or W-Lot. They want to Park in S-Lot or in front of the Alumni dorms and get all bent out of shape when they can't. At the end of the day, the campus beauty and upkeep is a lot more important than parking spots. When I applied to UConn I didn't think "wow, so many parkings spots, sign me up!" We go to a rural campus, the beauty of our campus should be a priority.