Parking lot Nightmares

[YodamboY]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

I go to a big school in a small town. I want to know if this is something the students could sue over or not. Long story short. The students at this school are experiencing problems. The ratio for students to parking is said to be 4:1 or higher. Parking is not just the problem its also the amount of tickets everyone has gotten from these spots.

Ive talk with faculty and they are complaining but wont voice their opinions publicly because they could lose their job. Ive check the website and their is no official agreement or rules regarding the lot usage or regulation. We all know that the parking lot fines and fees is this schools main source of income. Is there some law governing this?

My problems with this is that the parking lots are irregularity located and in some cases not big enough to fit many cars and are far away from campus. Another problem is that there is no parking and this takes away for what I am paying for. If I cant find a parking spot after 20mins of driving around I simply go home. In this area it is so bad that all the students park on side streets and each road is packed with cars making it an insurance nightmare.

Our school recently got audited and found that they were $23 million in the hole. They easily made there money back with tickets. Even when disputing a ticket they decline without making a statement as to why they declined a case.

When inquiring about the number of parking spots I was given the run around to different places who all claimed they didn't know how many parking spaces the college has.
So without doing a freedom of information act I counted each parking space myself available to students.

The total # of students at the college according to 2014 is 36,198. The # of parking spaces for both General and Premium parking is roughly: 2,686 with 1,569. I wasn't able to get how many of those students drive cars so I just did some estimations based on percentages.


20%= 2.6:1
25%= 3.3:1
30%= 4:1

Assuming that everyone has at least a premium permit which allows them to park at both premium and general parking slots. Id say its worth an investigation since the college's 800 million budget poorly covers parking maintenance and their negligence regarding ticket disputes.

Thanks for reading and your input.

 

[Silverplum]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

I go to a big school in a small town. The school is the towns main source of revenue. I want to know if this is something the students could sue over or not. Our school has around 36,500 students. There aren't many parking spaces and each parking lot has a specific designation to who can use it. Ive talk with even faculty and they are complaining but wont voice their opinions publicly because they could lose their job. Ive check the website and their is no official agreement or rules regarding the lot usage. We all know that the parking lot fines and fees is this schools main source of income. Is there some law governing this?

My problems with this is that the parking lots are irregularity located and in some cases not big enough to fit 100 cars and far away from campus. Another problem is that there is no parking and this takes away for what I am paying for. If I cant find a parking spot after 20mins of driving around I simply go home. In this area it is so bad that all the students park on side streets and each road is packed with cars making it an insurance nightmare. Our school recently got audited and found that they were $23 million in the hole. I went in to the school to print a piece of paper and came back out and was fined for $135. I have parked in sections at the school with other people parked along side me that didn't have a no parking sign which even had a painted slot for parking and gotten a ticket. I tried to have this ticket disputed but was declined. I didn't even get a reason for them declining the ticket.

When inquiring about the number of parking spots I was lead around to different places who all claimed they didn't know how many parking spaces the college has.
So without doing a freedom of information act I counted each parking space myself available to students.

The total # of students at the college according to 2014 is 36,198.The # of parking spaces for both General and Premium parking is roughly: 2,686 with 1,569 for General Parking and 1,117 for Premium. I wasn't able to get how many of those students drive cars so I just did some estimations based on percentages.


20%= 2.6:1
25%= 3.3:1
30%= 4:1

Assuming that everyone has at least a premium permit which allows them to park at both premium and general parking slots.
Id say its worth an investigation sincehttp://www.pabar.org/CountyDir/Map.asp the college's 800 million budget poorly covers parking maintenance and their negligence regarding ticket disputes.

Thanks for reading and your input.

Back to Logic 101 with you.

 

[YodamboY]

Sorry I will edit it better.

Thanks

 

[stealth2]

Maybe the FBI would investigate it for you.

 

[cbg]

I'm wondering first, where the school promised you would always have prime parking; second, who is supposed to pay for additional parking lots; and third, what buildings are they supposed to pull down to create them.

Not to mention what happens to the people who own the buildings that need to be leveled to create more parking.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

I suggest you switch to a school that has more parking or live in a dorm.

 

[YodamboY]

So lets say they just have 2 acres for parking. 1 acre for Premium and the other for general parking? Is it okay for the university to sell as many parking permits as they want regardless of student body size? Is there any law regarding it or is it unprecedented? I feel like its illegal especially if they know a certain percentage of students wont be able to find parking at certain times and use this information to tow and ticket the students. I guess in the real world bad business is still business.

Thanks

 

[adjusterjack]

There's no law that's going to change this. Nothing illegal is going on. People have the same limited parking problems everywhere. Try finding a parking space in Manhattan if you don't believe that.

The student's are stuck with the status quo.

Your personal solution can be any one of the following:

1 - Enroll in a different college.
2 - Get there very, very early.
3 - Carpool.
4 - Bike
5 - Bus
6 - Have somebody drive you, drop you off and pick you up.
7 - Live in a dorm if available.
8 - Park in a municipal parking lot, walk or bike the rest of the way.
9 - Use your imagination for anything else.

 

[Just Blue]

Back to Logic 101 with you.

I want my "like" back!! ^

 

[Just Blue]

There's no law that's going to change this. Nothing illegal is going on. People have the same limited parking problems everywhere. Try finding a parking space in Manhattan if you don't believe that.

The student's are stuck with the status quo.

Your personal solution can be any one of the following:

1 - Enroll in a different college.
2 - Get there very, very early.
3 - Carpool.
4 - Bike
5 - Bus
6 - Have somebody drive you, drop you off and pick you up.
7 - Live in a dorm if available.
8 - Park in a municipal parking lot, walk or bike the rest of the way.
9 - Use your imagination for anything else.

Yup to all the above!! ^

 

[cbg]

So lets say they just have 2 acres for parking. 1 acre for Premium and the other for general parking? Is it okay for the university to sell as many parking permits as they want regardless of student body size? Is there any law regarding it or is it unprecedented? I feel like its illegal especially if they know a certain percentage of students wont be able to find parking at certain times and use this information to tow and ticket the students. I guess in the real world bad business is still business.

Thanks

You can "feel" it's illegal as much as you want. But unless you can show us a law that says only as many permits as there are parking spaces can be sold, you're out of luck. Because it's not.

 

[quincy]

So lets say they just have 2 acres for parking. 1 acre for Premium and the other for general parking? Is it okay for the university to sell as many parking permits as they want regardless of student body size? Is there any law regarding it or is it unprecedented? I feel like its illegal especially if they know a certain percentage of students wont be able to find parking at certain times and use this information to tow and ticket the students. I guess in the real world bad business is still business.

Thanks

Parking permit over-sale is a common practice for most universities. The theory behind selling more permits than parking spaces available is that not everyone will need to use parking spaces at the same time (e.g., student class times are not the same). There will be parking available somewhere on campus for students. The parking spaces just might not be as convenient to campus buildings as the permit-only lots.

I know a few schools have taken the parking complaints of students to heart and have built permit-only parking structures to replace the lots.

 

[LdiJ]

Parking permit over-sale is a common practice for most universities. The theory behind selling more permits than parking spaces available is that not everyone will need to use parking spaces at the same time (e.g., student class times are not the same). There will be parking available somewhere on campus for students. The parking spaces just might not be as convenient to campus buildings as the permit-only lots.

I know a few schools have taken the parking complaints of students to heart and have built permit-only parking structures to replace the lots.

I have yet to encounter any university that actually figured out a parking system that actually worked. Other than for faculty and staff. Rare universities haven't needed a parking system because they have ample parking for everyone and therefore first come, first serve, works...but they are rare.

When I was working on my master's I bought a parking pass and soon discovered that it wasn't worth the money I paid. All it allowed me was to fight for a parking space no where near the building where my classes were located. However, on the other hand, I could pay for parking on a daily basis in a garage that allowed me direct access (via hamster tube) to the same building...and the daily rate was not all that much more than what I paid for the parking pass.

 

[stealth2]

A new semester and OP is still gnawing on the same bone. SMH.