Many students at ETSU see parking as an amateur sport, in which the victorious win a closer spot on campus and the losers hike the freezing distance from the outer parking lot perimeters.
“It’s terrible. There’s not enough parking,” said freshman Leslie Ellison, while walking out to her car Friday morning.
“Especially in convenient areas – it makes no sense,” agreed freshman Candice Lathan, who was walking with Ellison. “There should be parking areas for people who commute.”
With 12,156 graduate and undergraduate students as of fall 2006 and up to 5,239 specific spaces available to students on campus, ETSU has less than one spot for every two students enrolled.
Yet ETSU’s parking space to student ratio is well above the national average, according to Chief Jack Cotrel, director of public safety. “Our biggest problem with parking is everyone wants to park within a 30-second walk to their building,” he said.
Of an estimated 7,021 parking spots on campus, 3,427 are student spaces and 1,757 spaces are open to anyone, according to the last estimate in September 2004.
Due to construction, Cotrel said, the number of spaces has probably decreased rather than increased since 2004. Construction for Governors Hall has replaced Lot 9, where there use to be 91 parking spots.
Cotrel had several suggestions for students trying to make it to class on time. First, they should arrive early if they need to be on campus during what he called peak hours, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
After 11 a.m., there is a sharp drop in traffic on campus and spaces begin to open up.
Instead of circling lots looking for closer spots, Cotrel suggests students park in larger parking areas like 22A, the parking lot along State of Franklin Road below Warf-Pickel Hall.
The Buc-Shot is a free shuttle service for students, faculty and visitors which will pick up students in lots like 22A, according to the Johnson City transit system.
Buc-Shot operates fall and spring semesters around the ETSU campus, Buc Ridge, Buc Village, as well in a small radius around campus.
During the first week of classes, campus safety traditionally hands out warnings instead of parking tickets unless students are parked illegally in front of water hydrants or in handicap parking, Cotrel said.
This week students should be prepared to pay a fine if they are found illegally parked.Instead of parking in non-designated student parking spots, students should search harder, Cotrel said. “There are always empty parking spaces available for student parking,” he said.
For more information on the Buc-Shot, visit http://www.johnsoncitytransit.org/campus.html

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