Lot 1A will be closed July 27, and parking spaces will be relocated to the Welcome Center Parking Garage. | Hendrick Rosemond/The Daily Cougar
Student parking Lot 1A, located directly across from Moody Towers, will be closing July 27 to begin the construction of the 1A Parking Garage, which is scheduled to be completed July 2013.
This new, five-level garage will hold 1,500 vehicles, but until it is completed, students, faculty and staff who park in Lot 1A will be displaced.
“There were only 58 commuter spaces in the lot so it should have little effect on (commuter students),” said Robert Browand, director of Parking and Transportation.
“As for the residents, we are holding spaces in the Welcome Center Garage for the first 500 residents that sign up on the Welcome Center Garage Resident wait-list.”
Displaced commuter students may park in Lot 4A, the lot adjacent to Bayou Oaks apartments or Lots 20A and 20C outlaying the East Garage.
Faculty and staff with ungated permits will be able to obtain a Welcome Center Garage parking permit valid in the student section.
Though the completion of the 1A Garage will add parking spaces on campus, displaced students are still concerned with the limited space as well as the cost of garage parking.
“If I didn’t live on campus it’d be impossible (to find a place to park),” said supply chain management junior Joshua Bailey.
“Depending on where you are, it can take up to 30 minutes to park between 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. Even though they’re reserving garage spots for students, they need to make it more cost effective. … Garage parking costs almost $300.”
Parking and Transportation knew the decision would cause parking issues but said there were very few alternatives.
“It was necessary to allocate spaces in the student area for faculty and staff,” Browand said.
“There are no other faculty/staff parking lots in that part of campus and the faculty/staff parking at the Welcome Center Garage is small. The only parking lot available in the area would have been Lot 4A which would have displaced students too.”
While this transition may cause some difficulties for students, there are other available parking solutions in addition to relocating to the designated lots.
“The Stadium Parking Garage is now open and parking is still available,” Browand said
“We still have the temporary parking lots on north campus that were put in last year to compensate for the Stadium Garage construction, and parking is available at Energy Research Park.”
$300 is pricey, but that’s the price of parking. If you honestly think it’s expensive, you should vote with your wallet and carpool with someone or take the METRO.
During the summer I’ve opted to commute from home by going to the Park & Ride near my area (free parking) take the express bus ($1.60 where I live, depends how far out you are), and catching either bus 80 or 30 to my preferred stops at UH ($0.63).
I pay $4.46 a day, and $102.58 a month (taking into account the maximum the highest amount of weekdays a month; 23). I save gas money and don’t have to bother with permits or violations or whatever. I pay lower than that as well when I opt to go for the slower buses and get picked up/dropped off at a bus stop not too far from the Park and Ride (free transfers).
Don’t be whiners. Just find a way to deal with it. Parking infrastructure costs money and even the department offers many alternative solutions than parking on their website.