There are a number of ways to make the change in parking we want to see on campus. None are easy, and most are options that many shrug off as not applicable to students. But if the campus waits any longer, parking permits will reach $350 a year. If, however, we take the time to look at the realities of transportation on campus we might see positive change. Students can actively participate in a solution.
The cheapest and easiest route is by foot, bike, rollerblade or long board. Yet this is Montana, and some people just aren’t tough enough to be green. It’s cold, it rains, snows, hails, blizzards. Some don’t want to get their new Helly Hansen coat wet before they go shred the gnar at Bridger. Others work full-time jobs off of campus. Any way we slice the parking pie, the more cars on campus the harder it is to find spots when we need them. We have two choices: reduce traffic flow or expand infrastructure.
Either of these are viable options. Expanding infrastructure can be anything from upgrading dirt parking lots to building a parking garage. It also means perpetuating a single-passenger car culture. With that culture comes freedom, but only in a very immediate sense—it is accompanied by the burden of increased permit, gas and maintenance prices as well as the environmental toll of transporting ourselves via petroleum.
Reducing traffic flow on campus is a move that has lower initial results but a high long-term return. One example is utilizing Streamline. Although the bus routes are not perfect, that doesn’t mean they aren’t improvable. The more people use the bus, the more of a say they have in where it stops, and when. If we don’t invest our time, money or energy in a system, it will never progress.
Perhaps a more flexible option is carpooling. Sharing a car with a roommate to and from campus might, however, require a rearrangement of some schedules. These are values we have to weigh. Is it really that hard to wait in the library for 45 minutes while a roommate finishes her last class in order to share a ride home? It’s not like Hulu videos have a strict expiration date—”Glee” will be on later, too.
As students, we have a unique opportunity to drive administration in the direction we wish. We can only do so if we are educated on issues and passionate about seeing them implemented. Don’t look for the “one thing” to do to help the parking problem; it doesn’t exist.
Get involved. Go to the monthly Parking Transportation Advisory Committee and Streamline meetings or contact the Western Transportation Institute. Get in touch with Concrete Reform, a group working to create a student-led solution to parking on campus. Ride a bike. Challenge others to do the same.
Contacts: http://www.montana.edu/asmsu/ or http://www.wti.montana.edu/ or contact concrete.reform@gmail.com
