Oh Brother. Brigham Young University is having a problem — its parking lots are jammed…Read about it here: Heh Heh Heh — They stopped charging for parking because the kids were parking in the local neighborhoods and they wanted to be good neighbors. Naturally the kids don’t park in the neighborhoods any more, they all park on campus and in droves. There is no parking and of course the rocket scientists on the local paper are trying to solve the problem by asking those who live nearby to walk…Yeah, right. Here’s what I wrote when I found out about the issue in August 2005:
Utah’s Brigham Young University has decided to stop charging students for parking. Read about it here. Seems the students, not wanting to pay the $60 for a permit, would park in the neighborhoods surrounding the school, greatly upsetting the denizens.
In their infinite wisdom, the leaders of the institution decided to remove the fee to entice the student parkers back. When the fee was instituted, the ideas was to get the students to take public transportation. These kids aren’t stupid. They simply moved their parking across the street. Now we have neighborhoods full, parking lots empty.
The new plan is a solution, but I think not THE solution. Students will most likely come back in droves, the public transportation will be empty, and they will fill the parking facilities. Then the remainder will go back the the neighborhoods and that will be that.
Too bad these folks hadn’t read Don Shoup’s book, and simply put a high fee on parking in the neighborhoods (the residents could have permits.) The students would have moved back on campus, the buses would have retained their riders, and all would have been right with the world.
Couldn’t have said it better myself — oh yes, I did.
JVH
