Students who circle the Bookstore Lot for half an hour before class are likely to be doing so for the rest of their UB careers.
Barbara J. Chance - a representative from Chance Management Advisors Inc. - presented the firm's findings at Wednesday's Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting. In October 2001, the UB administration hired the Philadelphia-based consulting firm to investigate UB's parking and transportation system and suggest improvements.
Although many students perceive parking at UB as terrible, Chance said this is not the reality.
"One misconception is that (UB does) not have enough spaces," Chance said. "You do, but it is not where everyone wants to park."
According to Chance, many of the parking problems could be alleviated if drivers would stay in one spot because searching for spaces from one lot to the next causes traffic congestion and prevents drivers from being present in lots once spots become available.
"Thirty percent of people drive from one side of campus to the other," she said. "Most of the parking problems come from circulating from lot to lot."
Noelle Lohr, a sophomore biology major, suggested building a garage and selling permits to students who want to park in it, instead of requiring the entire student body to subsidize the cost of the garage through a parking and transportation portion of the comprehensive fee.
"I think that we need to build a parking garage and have the option of paying an extra fee," Lohr said. "There is a problem when you come an hour early to class and cannot find a spot."
Although a lot of people have suggested building a parking garage, Chance said this option would not be cost effective because, as a "rule of thumb," each space would cost between $100 and $125 per month to maintain.
"People do not want a garage if they have to pay any more for it," Chance said.
Another problem Chance cited was a lack of communication between the university and drivers. She said a lot of survey respondents indicated they disliked when the university reserves entire parking lots for special events and does so without providing sufficient notice of parking changes.
"Students and staff do not like having to move out of their spaces when special events come, or (when they) receive adequate information," Chance said.
According to Chance, while they were conducting research, UB was already making improvements to the parking and transportation system.
Some of the major changes Chance noted were the creation of the new South Lake Lot; pavement of the Stadium Lot; color-coding the campus shuttle system; and enhancing shuttle and bus services.
One of the parking improvement suggestions Chance made was having the university adopt a key-card system for its parking lots. For example, students would receive a card that would only allow them to enter student lots.
According to Chance, one of the advantages of the key-card system is that students would not have the ability to park in faculty lots, thus reducing the number of parking tickets issued.
However, Chance said this type of system would make it impossible to have a parking lot that allows both faculty and students.
"This system would provide access control," Chance said. "It would allocate people to the lots based on who they are and where they should be."
John Grela, director of public safety, said that the key-card system is a possibility, but his immediate concern is to develop a prioritized list of necessary improvements to parking and transportation at UB.
"We are going to take everything one step at a time," Grela said. "We need to look at who is impacted, and if we are going to be in conflict with current union contracts, and what the costs would be."
Chiharu Umeda, a sophomore business major, said installing a key-card system would not solve the problem. She said the problem lies in the fact that there are simply not enough parking spots to accommodate everyone.
"We need more spaces," Umeda said. "I have to wait 30 minutes to find parking."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
