University of Virginia Library

No 1st-Year Cars

The University has really outdone
itself with its "head in sand"
approach to student vehicle registration
and parking. Unfortunately,
the problems will get worse and will
not disappear by ignoring them.

Freshmen (or rather first-year
men) should NOT be allowed to
register cars and/or enjoy general
student parking privileges if the
campus (grounds) isn't ready to
support the overload. And it isn't.
Existing parking facilities are inadequate;
the lot below Newcomb Hall
was obviously not designed by Mr.
Jefferson: it is my estimate that
room for fifty additional cars
would be found by merely repainting
the separation lines a bit
closer together. However, this
would entail re-surfacing the
crater-ravaged blacktop, so this
improvement is unlikely. But even
this measure would fail to alleviate
the problem. There are many sites
around the grounds that could be
easily converted to student parking
areas, but for reasons unknown to
students, this has failed to materialize.

Perhaps modern facilities for
modern transportation is anachronism
in the academical village, and
should be hidden from view. If this
is so, I suggest constructing an
underground lot beneath the lawn.

But until the parking problem is
solved by one means or another,
the University is exhibiting incredibly
poor judgment by increasing
the opportunities to clog and
congest the streets and parking lots
of the Grounds (campus).