Gregg Heinkel has his own way of dealing with parking on campus: get there early.
Heinkel, a senior humanities major, said he has always arrived to campus early because of horror stories from other students about the difficulty of finding parking. To guarantee a spot, he arrives on campus at 8 a.m. for an 11:30 a.m. class.
Heinkel passes the three hours in a quiet corner outside the administrative office in the Nicholson School of Communication building reading a book.
“I just sit here for several hours,” he said. “I work on my homework. It isn’t too bad. I can get a lot done.”
The parking problems extend to handicapped parking spaces as well.
The garages combined provide 58 handicapped parking spaces, and there are more than 500 surface lot spaces that are divided up between “service/loading, 24-hour reserved, and the disabled or handicapped,” according to the UCF Parking & Transportation Services Web site.
With so few spaces for the handicapped, Kevin Simmons, a 32-year-old digital media student with a disability, finds it increasingly difficult to locate a spot to park.
“It is impossible, even with my [handicapped parking] tag,” he said.
Simmons usually goes through two lots before finding a handicapped spot or even a regular space.
Parking on campus is notoriously bad, but there are plans to ease the situation.
A new parking garage is being built next to the Fairwinds Alumni Center and the Psychology Building, according to UCF News & Information.
Construction begins this month and should be completed by spring 2011. It will cost an estimated $17 million.
Parking Garage J will have about 1,300 spaces, about 300 fewer spaces than Parking Garage A, the largest garage on campus.
Construction calls to alter the man-made pond located next to where the new garage will be. A bridge will be constructed to be used as a pedestrian walkway.
The new garage will provide a much needed boost to parking on the north side of campus, as well as provide extra parking during events at the Arena.
UCF has about 14,879 parking spaces, according to the Parking & Transportation Services Web site.
Last year, the university collected $8.6 million in transportation fees and another $1.3 million from parking fines, for a total of nearly $10 million, including selling 48,434 parking decals.
With drivers outnumbering parking spaces by a 3-1 ratio, parking is a major issue across campus.
The grass overflow lot across from the construction of the new Performing Arts Center was a hotspot for many drivers, who could quickly find a spot, or sometimes make one, and get to class on time.
Christine Dellert of UCF News & Information, said Parking & Transportation Services uses the lot for overflow and game day football parking.
Last semester it was kept open longer than normal because of the heavy traffic that is common in the fall.
There was so much overflow that there were not enough places to park. Students made their own spots, often illegally. During the semester, five cars were towed.
“It really is the same situation as it has been in the past,” Dellert said. “It is open in the fall because there is more traffic and it usually closes by spring.”
The empty lot is now home to the recently erected electronic sign.
2 comments
I haven't purchased a parking pass in the past 2 of my 3 years at UCF b/c they are too expensive and sometimes it would take over an hour to find a spot anyway.