“Sometimes it appears as though students are angrily honking their horns and darting around UA parking lots like cowboys in a gunfight trying to find an available parking space. It’s pandemonium: every driver for themselves. Even Parking Services agrees that parking can be hard sometimes.”
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Sometimes it appears as though students are angrily honking their horns and darting around UA parking lots like cowboys in a gunfight trying to find an available parking space.

It’s pandemonium: every driver for themselves.

Even Parking Services agrees that parking can be hard sometimes.

Parking is a necessary evil, and if I can’t find convenient parking space, it’s an irritation, director of parking services Jim Stafford said.

However, Stafford did suggest ways to find a decent parking space and relieve the stress with a few simple tips.

The first tip is to be willing to walk a little farther and stop trying to park in the most convenient place. Circling around a lot or garage for half an hour or can make students late for class.

The south end is awful for parking; spaces by Exchange, Shrank and the Student Union are virtually impossible to find, Stafford said. Don’t drive around hoping a space will open up-it’s like waiting in traffic.

According to Stafford, parking solutions students often use to eliminate parking problems are not always helpful.

Leaving earlier won’t do the trick, he said. Unless you get there by 7:30 a.m., you’ll never find a space.

Instead, Stafford suggests relaxing and parking on the east side of campus near Route 8.

It’s the best place for parking because it’s never packed to capacity, he said. And it’s only a five minute walk from the main campus.

Often students have the misconception that the university has more students than spaces. However, according to Stafford, this is not true.

We are not having a parking crisis, he said. With Quaker Square, close to 500 (additional) spaces are operational.

If walking from Quaker Square to main campus seems like a burden, the university has added the free Roo Express shuttle service. These shuttles run between Quaker Square and the traffic circle just north of the Goodyear Polymer Building. A second shuttle runs to Polsky.

The biggest tip Stafford had for students was to use the internet.

Go online to get help, Stafford said. Go on the University of Akron’s home page, and click on parking – map – sky cam, and it will take you to a direct link of our site.

According to the Website, UA is taking action to improve parking for everyone, however it will take time. The site also said a task force was created which studied the current parking situation on campus and issued a series of recommendations. Among those, the task force recommended UA build a 1,600 vehicle deck and a shuttle service should be developed. In addition, it was recommended that the university implement a campaign to encourage drivers to park in outlying campus lots.

As well, a second page online offers students eight Secrets About Parking at UA and a map showing the best place to park depending on what time you come to campus.

The university also issued a special edition Zipmail at the beginning of the Spring Semester to inform students that most of the parking on the south side of the Rec. Center would be closed due to construction. The Zipmail also informed students of newly added spaces around campus including the 500 new parking spaces at Quaker Square. A list of additional parking spaces newly available include 55 new spaces at the Urban League Building on Lincoln Street, 75 new spaces are available at the Wolf Ledges Professional Building at Wolf Ledges and Wheeler Street, and 43 spaces are available at the Buchtel Field lot, also on Wheeler Street.

The special edition Zipmail also said 1,000 fewer permits have been sold this spring semester in comparison to the fall semester.

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