Editorial Board: Car rental service on campus could cure parking woes
System has had success across country, could work at University.
KANSAN
Friday, October 5th, 2007
With increasingly squeezed parking becoming more of a hassle for students and faculty, companies are developing innovative car-sharing programs at other college campuses across the country. The success of these programs indicates a similar attempt would work here at KU.
Lawrence’s layout makes a car a near-necessity for incoming students. Access from campus to all major retail areas is incredibly difficult without a car. But what do students do with those cars between the occasional trips down Iowa Street? They park them in KU’s oversold residence parking lots or on Lawrence’s crowded public streets.
Many universities, particularly in urban settings, are partnering with private businesses to provide car-sharing, a type of short-term car rental program. The largest car sharing companies charge an annual membership fee for participating students, and then charge an hourly rate for car usage. Members have cards which care scanned to unlock the cars’ doors and track use.
This service allows students to share cars instead of each having his own. In addition to easing parking crunches, it can also encourage alternative transportation by putting an overt hourly price on car usage, and it can increase carpooling by making car usage less impulsive while still accessible.
KU needs a program like this. Currently the University’s parking department estimates it oversells commuter parking passes by 59%. While not every commuter is on campus at the same time, the dearth of evening and weekend classes ensures most are here during a limited window. More than half of commuting students, however, are so discouraged by the prospects of on-campus parking that they forego a parking pass entirely and jockey for limited street parking around campus. This negatively impacts surrounding residents and creates ill-will toward the University.
More critically, the University oversells the residence hall parking passes by 36%, meaning every night more than 1,000 students who paid for parking cannot park in a residence hall lot. Since 77% of residence hall students purchase parking passes, a car-sharing program like this could go a long way toward reducing the parking demands on campus.
In partnering with these private companies, universities take on a financial obligation to ensure the businesses reach revenue goals. However, as Rutgers transportation director Jack Molenaar recently pointed out in a USA Today article, their financial obligation is far below the cost of adding just one parking spot.
If the University wishes to improve student welfare, reduce carbon emissions and improve town-gown relations by boosting the quality of life for everyone in Lawrence, a car-sharing program would go a long way towards those goals.
Discussion
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or if we only had some kind of bus system...oh wait...
A bus system that's inefficient and causes accidents with 40-foot long vehicles.
Nothing can beat a properly implemented public transportation system. It is highly effecient, cheap and environmental friendly. Look at Europe for example.
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