Having to arrive on campus 20 minutes before class starts has become a common headache for commuters on campus. Students are having to fight to get a close parking spot so they don’t have to walk miles to get to campus.
LSU Parking and Transportation Services announced a temporary solution to students’ frustrations — the Hart Lot will open to both commuter and residential parking starting next week.
However, even the Director of Parking Gary Graham believes that these 150 parking spaces will not make a huge difference in the situation at all.
“If I can create one more commuter space, that’s one less commuter complaint,” Graham said.
The University lost roughly 600 parking spaces because of various construction projects happening around campus, causing havoc for commuters trying to find parking on campus.
“I stay less than five miles away from campus, and I have to leave 35 minutes before class starts just to find a parking space, and it only takes me five minutes to walk to class,” business junior Rhea Jones said.
Students said they are frustrated that more commuter parking permits are sold than there are parking spaces available, according to theology and marketing junior Derrick McNeil.
McNeil said he has received six tickets totaling more than $100 because he can not find any available spots in a commuter zone and is forced to park in a residential parking zone that is not filled.
“I don’t have any extra money to give to LSU, and I believe that what LSU parking is doing must be wrong in some way,” McNeil said.
Graham agrees there are more parking permits sold than spaces but said that not all students are on campus at the same time. However, he disagrees with students’ claims that they are unable to find any commuter parking spaces.
“That’s just not true,” Graham said. “We are only filled to 80 or 90 percent capacity at the biggest use time.”
Parking spaces are never filled along Nicholson or at the old Alex Box stadium, according to Graham. He said the problem for students is the spaces that are available are not convenient.
Commuters are not the only ones being affected by the loss of parking spaces. Residents, like interdisciplinary studies sophomore Derreyal Youngblood, find it difficult to get parking spaces even in residential zones.
“I stay in WCA, and it is hard for me to find a parking spot to go home because there are a lot of commuters parking there, and I see a lot of tickets being given,” Youngblood said.
Following the opening of the dual parking spaces in the Hart Lot, the project to construct a new parking lot across from Aster Street and south from Edward Gay Apartments for commuter parking is slated to be complete at the end of October. The new lot is expected to have more than 200 spaces.