Students struggle with parking now, hope for the future

By Jedd Rosche

Published Feb. 9, 2007

Jim Joy, director of Parking and Transportation Services, has heard every possible complaint about parking. Students have complained about late buses, slow buses and shuttles that stop for latecomers.

"Some days you think, 'You're never going to win with this,'" Joy said.

But Joy predicts that parking might get worse before it gets better.

The Campus Master Plan outlines a new surgery tower for the University Hospital that will close and displace patient parking for 16 months until May 2009, making as many as 600 student and faculty parking spots into temporary patient parking spots in the Maryland Avenue parking garage.

This might have some effect on Joy's psychology.

"I wake up in the middle of the night and think I should retire," he said.

The campus holds 23,000 cars, giving first-choice parking to full-time professors and staff, followed by graduate teacher assistants and graduate students. Undergraduates are on the bottom rung and with only 600 spots affixed to residence halls, the competition is massive for the closest spot.

The city of Columbia might have a solution to the vehicular Rubik's Cube of fitting too many cars into too few spaces.

The city created the Gold Route in August after two apartment complexes, Campus Lodge and The Reserve, donated a combined $32,000 to start the 50-minute bus loop that travels from Brady Commons to the Campus View Apartments.

Columbia Transit spokeswoman Jill Stedem said the response was beyond expectations.

"The Gold Route has far exceeded originally planned numbers they had predicted," Stedem said. "It's going really well."

In the fall semester, the route attracted 300 passengers per day and 24,000 passengers per month.

Sophomore Everlyne Stephens moved off-campus to an apartment off of Old 63 before fall semester. Stephens said when her car broke down, she used the Gold Route.

"It's really convenient," she said. "Even with my car fixed, I still took it."

Senior Ryan Beech said he generally likes the Gold Route while on his way to work.

"I enjoy it," he said. "No fighting traffic."

Gold Route bus driver Kevin Thomas said the only complaint he has heard from passengers are for the buses' afternoon hours to extend beyond 6 p.m. After that, Thomas drives the nuclear reactor route during the night though he said he likes the Gold Route better.

"You get a chance to sit for a little, unlike the reactor which is always going," Thomas said.

If the Gold Route won't work for a commuting student, chances are likely he or she will end up scoring a parking permit at Hearnes Center, Trowbridge or Reactor Field parking lot, where students take a shuttle from the perimeter to the middle of campus.

Joy said this plan is not ideal.

"It's not convenient to park at Hearnes Center, but at least it's a space," Joy said.

Junior Whitney Thomas said she has to wake up at 7 a.m. for her 9 a.m. class in order to make the Hearnes Center shuttle bus.

Junior Amy Foresman said she doesn't trust the shuttle system.

"The first two weeks of school, I would stand waiting for the bus for a half-hour," Foresman said. "I had a 9:30 a.m. class and the bus made me late for the whole two weeks. I try not to park there as much as possible."

Instead Foresman uses meter parking available, among other places, in Hitt Street parking garage and near the engineering building.

Joy said the majority of students haven't experienced life with a regular bus system and therefore, might not anticipate the timing requirements.

"That's just life with transit," Joy said. "People have more of a scheduling problem."

Joy said he reviews the shuttle system every year with the Missouri Students Association.

"We decide whether to shorten the route or increase buses," Joy said. "Adjustments are doable."

Joy said when the southeastern campus parking garage is complete, it will bring 2,000 more parking spots to campus. That, combined with a possible garage being built at Trowbridge commuter lot and one more in downtown Columbia, the future of MU parking could begin to become more convenient.

Still, Joy is content with reality of his job at present time.

"Those are the priorities," Joy said. "I'd like to think we give everyone their preferred spot, but that's obviously not true."