22 May, 2009

False economy

There's no free car parking on the University campus.  Staff can buy permits, as can some students, and visitors can pay & display or obtain vouchers pre-purchased by the departments they're visiting, but in short, bringing a car to campus almost always incurs a fee.  And rightfully so.

A fairly obvious response has been for drivers to park off-campus instead, on the verges of the surrounding roads. Since the campus has a semi-rural location, those roads are narrow lanes, totally unsuitable for parking (it's downright dangerous) so, as today's weekly e-mail newsletter reports, the Council is imposing 'No Waiting' restrictions; in effect, on-street parking is banned anywhere within a kilometre of the centre of campus.

Which explains why there has been an upsurge of parked cars along Whinfell Drive, a residential street at least 15 minutes away on foot. The full cycle ride from town doesn't take that long, and the bus takes ~20, IIRC.