There is nothing more frustrating as a commuter than arriving on campus 30 minutes early for class but still being late because I am looking for a parking space. I follow other students through the parking lot, hoping to take their spot but sigh in defeat as I park on one of the streets just off-campus. This is an issue for anyone who must drive to campus and park.
The parking lots on this campus are not large enough to accommodate the number of
students who regularly park at Bellarmine. There are 1,477 students registered for parking on Bellarmine's campus, including 398 first-year students. Most parking spaces exist in Freshman Parking (Lot 1), with 381 spaces, which is insufficient to satisfy the number of first years with cars on campus. However, these students cannot park anywhere else because of the limitations of the first-year parking passes.
The total number of regular parking spaces (not counting handicap spaces, reserved spaces, 15-minute spaces, and motorcycle spaces) is only 1,015, which is inadequate for the sophomore, junior and senior students with parking passes. When the upperclassmen run out of parking, they will go to the freshman parking lot. This increases the chances of first-year students not having a place to park and the likelihood of receiving a ticket for parking in the wrong lot.
These facts are concerning because if the university has a certain number of students, one expects ample parking. A lack of ample parking is a cause for concern. However, the Bellarmine University Campus Parking and Traffic Regulations state that students should refrain from parking on the street or near the neighborhood next to campus. Students should be respectful of their "neighbors." Yet we students have no other options when there is nowhere to park on campus because not enough spaces exist.
Another major issue I see often is visitors not parking where they are supposed to. The baseball and softball fields are next to Anniversary Hall, and many games occur during the weeks of the spring semester. While these games are in action, fans have parked their cars in the Anniversary and Petrick parking areas (Lot 8), taking up many limited student parking spaces. There are zero parking spaces in Lot 8 reserved for visitor parking, so these cars should not be there at any point unless the drivers receive temporary passes from Public Safety, and most do not bother with getting those passes.
In addition to taking student parking spaces, these fans park in the middle of the road and block other cars from getting through. Some even park in the grass. Kyle Reiber, assistant director of Public Safety, these drivers receive tickets once their tags have been checked. However, public Safety has no control over the collection of fines for the tickets. Leah Downs, an employee in the Bursar's Office at the time of the interview refused to comment on how these drivers are sent tickets or how fines for these violations are collected.
One way to solve this parking crisis is to prohibit freshman residents from having cars on campus. Opening the freshman parking lot would provide an additional 291 spaces bringing the total number of parking spots to 1,306, which would accommodate the sophomore, junior, and senior parking pass holders.
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