The hunt for a parking spot
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G64x01pYITg]
Ashley Schmid is constantly searching for a parking spot. Like thousands of CU Boulder students, Schmid is often worried about finding a parking spot on campus.
“The parking started to become a problem when I would get to campus and drive up and down the garage because I could not find a spot,” said Schmid.
Schmid is a senior who studies English and education at CU. She lives off campus and has an average daily commute of 15 minutes each way, to and from her apartment. Schmid originally got a parking spot for efficiency, but her parking experience has been far from efficient.
“I had a parking pass every single year I have been a student here, and every year they just keep getting more and more expensive,” said Schmid, noting that if she had one more semester at CU, she would not buy the pass because of the costly burden.
With the rising demand comes rising costs. Schmid paid over $400 for a parking pass for the 2017-18 academic year.
Tom McGann, the Director of Parking Services at CU Boulder said that CU has always sold out of parking passes. “We have never been able to quantify the demand,” McGann said.
Why not just create more parking structures? The answer is not simple. In order to build a parking structure, McGann said that a building must be built in unison, which makes the whole process even more complex.
Fortunately for students who rely on parking, McGann has many plans in place to create new parking structures in locations such as Grandview, Mackey Auditorium and the CU Rec Center. In the meantime, students like Ashley Schmid may need to add more time to their commutes or be late to their classes.