Construction led to the removal of 145 parking spots, officials push for the utilization of an unfavorable shuttle system, and a soon-to-be $90 parking fee is on the heels of commuter student drivers
Parking has seemingly always been an issue at Quinnipiac University. Dating back from 2017, Parking and Transportation Coordinator Shanon Grasso has been urging students to park in the York Hill garage, utilize the shuttle system, and even proposed an idea for an additional parking garage in place of the Hilltop parking lot.
Parking seems to be scarce for students of the university, but in a recent statement, John Morgan, associate vice president for public relations, said that there are 4,541 parking spaces available for students. These spots are available across the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses, along with the Whitney and Westwoods lots.
Though Hogan Lot was closed last year due to inactivity, Morgan has placed a sense of hope into the parking situation as Public Safety enforcement will be reenlisted to Hogan Lot per its previous hours of operation. Quinnipiac officials are scrambling to fill the cracks of the parking lot chaos, but will these alternatives be enough for fed-up students?
Commuters didn’t always have this much trouble finding parking and getting to class on time.
“Right now is so much harder than the other years I have commuted,” said Johnny Marquardt, a senior media studies major. “During COVID, there weren’t many people here and it was super easy to find a parking spot any time of the day. Now that everyone is back, there isn’t a parking spot to find.”
The ongoing parking issue for commuters has been prevalent for years now. On their third lap of the lot with ten minutes before class, many returning commuters have had ample time to compare the differences from last year to now.
“It takes me about 25 minutes to find parking, maybe more depending on the time,” said Zak Polak, a senior engineering major.
With the ever-increasing time that is consumed by finding parking, students fear that their attendance will be affected, leading many to create their own spots.
“I have parked illegally, and felt really bad about it,” Polak said. “I made my own parking spot at the end of a row. I really had no other option, I mean, I had to make it to my class somehow, and the options are limited.”
In the first three weeks of classes, students have become creative with their problem-solving when it comes to playing “musical parking spots” with plates of states ranging across the East. Some resort to taking the risk of parking in the faculty lot. Others, such as Polak, park in makeshift spots and cross their fingers they don’t later open their email to “Parking Ticket: Quinnipiac University Parking Violation.”
QU Barstool (@qubarstool) — a popular student-run account on social media pages such as Instagram and Twitter — has added to the mass spread of this content on their Instagram, posting a video of a long line of cars parked over the curb and on the grass hill in North Lot across from the designated slots. Racking up 10,604 views after being posted on Sept. 7, social media is a major source of news and debate for many Bobcats.
The dangers don’t end there, however. Not only is it difficult to find parking across campus lots, but lines of traffic stretch past the security booth one way and up through the School of Communications and Engineering faculty lot.
“Not only is getting into the lot in the morning and mid-afternoon time-consuming but getting out is a struggle as well,” said Alexis DeSantis, a senior business major. “Everyone is eager to leave after their classes, so just backing out of my spot takes me over 15 minutes due to student traffic.”
Backed-up lines of cars causing eye-opening traffic in an already-full lot can lead to many more underlying issues such as hostility and fighting over mere parking spots, delays affecting class attendance and accidents.
QUBarstool also captures examples of hostility, danger, and overall parking chaos on their Instagram page. Racking up 10,325 views, content like this is liked, shared, and commented on, encouraging the dispute and student backlash over the many parking issues three weeks into the new semester.
Student eagerness isn’t the only contributing factor to the dreadful traffic conditions. The additional presence of construction trucks and vehicles is also posing an issue to traffic patterns and hostility.
“Leaving the North Lot after my class the other day took at least 30 minutes,” said Anna Williams, a senior health science major. “A line of construction trucks blocked the whole exit of the lot for at least 15 minutes. Who decided it would be a good idea to start construction right when classes start?”
Students on campus are constantly being heard complaining about the truck traffic and walkway closures and detours.
“Who decided it would be a good idea to start construction right when classes start?”
Anna Williams, a senior health science major
“Nothing beats the feeling of defeat when you realize you’re stuck behind an 8-wheeler after a long day of classes,” Williams said.
Students want answers and were heavily let down by Morgan’s “scripted” mass email sent to those who question the issue. Nobody wants to be encouraged to utilize the highly-disliked and dangerous shuttle system, especially with news of a ninety-dollar pass fee coming Spring of 2022.
“Students living in both QU and non-QU-owned housing, including those living on York Hill and Whitney Village, are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the shuttle bus system and to use these lots when traveling to the Mount Carmel Campus,” said Morgan in his automated email response.
“I’ve gone as far as requesting special permission to park in Hogan lot during previous years,” said senior political science major Abby Blumenfeld. “The shuttle system makes me extremely uneasy; the reckless driving and accidents on the shuttles don’t help.”
Blumenfeld isn’t the only returning commuter to share her disliking to the shuttle systems.
“Anytime my friends and I tried to take the shuttle, regardless if we tracked it on the app, it was always late,” DeSantis said. “This is why I’m always late to class when I take the shuttle, there’s always a pile-up of people waiting for a shuttle that takes forever to come.”
Many students worry that by utilizing the unfavorable shuttle system, they risk not making it to their classes on time.
With unfavorable shuttle systems, lack of parking on and off-campus, and the fear of being late to classes and events, students want answers. With no foreseeable end to these issues, there’s no way of telling when they will get the answers they are desperately waiting for.