Winter parking ban causes student alarm

Parking shortage leads committee to hand out surveys, search for solutions

With the winter parking ban in effect, parking at Oberlin is a hot topic for students, faculty and staff, who wonder where all the cars will fit come snow and tickets.

A parking committee has been meeting since the beginning of the semester to discuss ways to increase the parking options on the Oberlin campus, and has drafted a survey, to be distributed next week, that will determine what the problems actually are surrounding parking. The survey asks questions such as what time people are on campus with a car and whether or not a person has registered his or her car.

Director of Safety and Security Keith James said, "There is no way you can really verify a lot of those concerns until you get data."

We don't know if there are enough parking spaces that are conveniently located, so we want to look at that to see what the problems really are," he said.

A private consultant was hired last year to assess the parking needs of the College. The consultant's report said: "Parking appears to have been ignored as a need, and as old rules and regulations slowly changed [the problems grew]."

James said the committee has been brainstorming ideas for some time. Among the ideas thrown around at meetings were James' suggestions of "booting" vehicles, which consists of locking the wheels in place so the owner cannot move the vehicle, towing, installing gates to parking lots and having satellite lots, which would be located on the outside of campus.

"It's run the gamut from anywhere between those types of discussions. I hope that we will have a viable proposal," James said.

Oberlin Fire Chief Robert Kirin is also on the committee. He said the fire department has special concerns related to parking.

Kirin said one of the fire department's reasons for being on the committee is to make sure it maintains access to dorms and buildings.

Kirin said, "We need to get into the buildings with fire protection devices. The sprinkler devices, for example. You need to get close enough to the building to get water to the sprinkler system," Kirin said.

"We want to be realistic with the college. We want convenience for faculty and students as much as we need that emergency access," he said.

According to the office of security, there are 263 student cars registered with the College. There are about 410 parking spaces for students, including the field house parking lot, the Carnegie lot and a lot on Union street.

James said there are also 420 faculty and staff parking spaces.

"When you look at those figures, an argument can be made that we have enough spaces, but not enough spaces in convenient locations," James said.

He added that some people blame a mythical change in policy concerning first-year drivers for the parking difficulties this year.

"We get the rumor that the College has changed its policy on first-years, but we've only registered 14 first year students. The people that have been granted exceptions have legitimate reasons for why they should be allowed to have cars," James said.

Many students had notes under their windshield wipers last week about the snow ban on city streets. James said the city tries to keep the streets clear of snow, so people should not park on streets that are plowed.

The snow ban means that cars parked along any Oberlin street between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. can be towed by the city to insure that the roads will be able to be cleared of any snow.

"This year they will be enforcing it more rigorously with students," James said. "I hope people would register and park in areas they are assigned and realize Oberlin is a walking college."