University of Virginia Library

The Parking Problem

Anyone who has ever grumbled about
trying to find a parking space or trying to
cross University Avenue in rush hour traffic—and
who hasn't?—should be encouraged
by the long-range thinking of the University's
Traffic Control Committee.

According to Chip Lacy, the student
member of the committee and the former
Student Councilman who has been instrumental
in calling students' attention to the
problem, the group is attempting to consider
parking as a "total problem rather than
just suggesting temporary improvements here
and there.

As a result, the tremendous influx of
automobiles which already gives Mr. Bromwell
such a headache and which will increase
as the University grows larger perhaps
can be handled.

Rather than merely finding a place for
every car to be parked, the committee has
approached the problem with the commendable
idea of keeping the cost, trouble
and time of getting from one place at the
University to another at a minimum.

Although the Committee's plans are still
very tentative, two solutions seem possible:
a system of large parking garages convenient
to the busier parts of the Grounds, and a
system of cheap rapid transit connecting the
University with the student residential areas.

A parking garage in the Cabell Hall or
Memorial Gymnasium area presents special
problems, according to Mr. Lacy. Unlike
similar garages in city business districts,
any structure the University built would
be used only so many hours—probably six—
five days a week, some 40 weeks a year.
The garage would cost about $2,200 for
each parking space provided. To encourage
drivers to use the garage and to help pay
off the bond required to finance it, regular
parking on nearby streets would have to be
metered.

Mr. Lacy feels that a parking garage in
the hospital complex would be most feasible
of all at the present time. Its hours of
maximum use would be longer; and, with
a larger addition planned to the medical
center, the need seems pressing. There is a
report circulating among the hospital staff
that a prospective patient drove all the
way from North Carolina, only to return
home without seeing a doctor since he was
unable to find a parking place. The present
hospital lot, we understand, is filled by
8:30 a.m.

The charge for a student or University
secretary to use a parking garage or even
a metered space for a year could be prohibitive,
though. For that reason, the suggestion
of a bus system deserves serious
thought.

The University already provides large and
often unused parking lots in such remote
locales as Scott Stadium and University
Hall. These are too remote for persons
going to Cabell Hall or the Law School
or the hospital, however, and a bus system
might be the best answer.

Students could either drive, say, to University
Hall or be picked up in a dorm
area, then taken to the center of the
Grounds.

While the cost of operating a bus service
is still unknown, anything offered would
have to be dependable, spacious enough
for all riders and scheduled so as to stop at
convenient points around the University.

Mr. Lacy points out, furthermore, there
are many small improvements—more and
better sidewalks, for example, and safer
street crossing points—that could mean less
congestion and quicker travel for students.

We hope his ideas are given considerable
attention. While the Richmond Times-Dispatch
may deplore the student automobile,
in a community such as Charlottesville
where students are scattered over miles of
residential areas, the automobile is here
to stay.