“Now that we know it’s going to be a high-use parking lot, we should just level the whole area and start from scratch,” says Dr. Sarah Burns, a psychology professor at PC. Dr. Burns was referring to the Harrington-Peachtree parking lot situated behind the Harrington-Peachtree building on campus, which has structural issues that are causing some students and faculty to voice their concerns.
The parking lot’s inherent layout is the main issue. We filed this issue into three sub-issues, those being: Hazardous Spacing, Improper and Confusing Signage, and Ambiguous Overflow Parking.
The parking lot is full of spaces that are often too close together or even just random parking spots dotting the middle of the parking lot. “Getting a spot in the morning feels more like navigating a corn maze of cars rather than driving through a parking lot,” says Spence Hagood, a junior and member of PC’s golf team.
Truth be told, it really does feel like some kind of challenge to find a parking space that makes you feel like your car isn’t going to be accidentally hit or even ticketed. That is, if there are even any spots left in the parking lot.
The other issue with the HP parking lot is the signage throughout the lot. “I don’t even really know that it is clearly marked that it is a one-way,” says Dr. Burns.
This is an issue because proper signage is essential to making the parking lot function properly. Because of how tight the lot is, if someone goes the wrong direction, it is essentially impossible to get out of the situation quickly, which can be an issue for people trying to get to class on time.
This leads to the conversation on the overflow lot for the parking lot. This overflow parking is assumedly the gravel lot across the street from the HP parking lot. However, there is no proper signage or walking paths from this parking lot that may indicate this.
“I am not even really sure if we are allowed to park there,” says Lauren Hobson, a junior and an Art major here at PC.
However, frustration surrounding parking lots on PC’s campus is nothing new. “Parking on campus used to be a nightmare,” says Spence Hagood.
However, the issue that some students used to have with parking was less about the design of the parking lots and more about the numerous potholes dotting the surfaces of several of our campus’s parking lots.
These potholes were fixed during last semester’s winter break, with the Douglas, Grotnes, and Townhouse parking lots feeling better and smoother than ever.
“I used to avoid the Douglas parking lot like the plague,” stated Lauren Hobson, “but now that they filled in the potholes in the parking lot, I could not be more grateful to the maintenance staff and the people who helped get this fixed.” This seems to be a sentiment shared by many students around campus.
Although it may be frustrating that the issues with the HP parking lot are taking a while to fix, we need to look at the complexity of the changes that the HP parking lot needs.
Completely leveling and then repaving and restructuring an entire parking lot is something that will likely take a lot of money and a lot of time. Which is more than likely going to cost more and take more time than filling in potholes.
We also need to put our trust in the maintenance and administration staff, as we have seen that they are capable of high-quality repairs to parking lots. We simply need to be patient and wait for them to play their hand before we react as students.
