Lack of parking drives Dalhousie prof to quit his job
http://www.canada.com/Lack+parking+drives+prof+quit/5336048/story.html#ixzz1WiIKHPUe
Dan Middlemiss was so miffed at not getting one of the few — and highly coveted — parking spots at Dalhousie University, he put the brakes on a 30-year career at the Nova Scotia school.
The defence studies professor had waited hours in line for a parking pass, only to see it handed over to someone who lived a few blocks from campus.
The parking logjam drove Middlemiss to resign and to end his three-decade tenure at the Halifax institution.
"It's not just this, and it's silly in a way, but it's the culmination of a death by a thousand cuts," the 66-year-old said in a telephone interview.
"It's just a problem when you've got 20,000-plus people and 2,000 spots," he said.
"It's not the money, it's not even the waiting — it's just the general situation. I'm tired of it."
He's not alone.
In the hours following the news of his decision, Middlemiss heard from friends and former colleagues at universities from across the country who said they sympathized with his situation because they too, felt the car crunch.
However, letting those emotions escalate may be just the answer campuses are looking for to solve their parking woes.
Rather than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new parking structures, universities should just let the frustration build to the point where drivers want to stop using their vehicles, says an expert on urban transportation habits.
"I don't think that building more parking is the answer," said Ahmed El-Geneidy, an urban planning professor at McGill University in Montreal.
McGill, for instance, has been actively discouraging parking at its downtown campus by eliminating parking spaces and refusing to hand out new passes, save for special circumstances, El-Geneidy said.
While Middlemiss said priority for parking passes should be given to those who live farthest from campus, El-Geneidy said priority should be given to those for whom public transportation or cycling is difficult. Think of a doctor working 12-hour shifts or a researcher who ends work late at night, he said. In that scenario El-Geneidy said, the doctor or researcher would get a parking pass regardless of where they live.
Dalhousie University is looking at building more above- and below-ground parking, said Ken Burt, the school's vice-president of finance and administration. The cost for either isn't cheap: $25,000 per stall for above-ground garages and $75,000 per stall for below-ground parking.
"The immediate thing we need to be developing are these green ways of getting to campus," Burt said.
He said Dalhousie has included changerooms, showers and storage spaces for cyclists in new buildings, and also offers taxi passes to cyclists to be used should they be stuck on campus late or during severe weather.
The University of British Columbia has decreased by one-third the number of parking spaces on campus to about 10,000 from 15,000 and plans to continue to cut the number of spaces in the years to come, said Joe Stott, UBC's director of campus planning.
In place of parking spaces, UBC has built neighbourhoods for staff and faculty and more residence spaces for students, Stott said.
Dalhousie also is looking at providing its faculty and staff with a discounted transit pass, a practice other schools, such as UBC and the University of Alberta in Edmonton, have in place for their students.
Geoff Rode, who oversees parking at the University of Alberta, said the bus pass has been more successful than carpool and car-sharing programs in getting people out of their vehicles. Students have taken to the pass more so than staff and faculty, Rode said.
The success of any public transit initiative is in the eyes of the user, El-Geneidy said.
"It all depends to what extent the transit system . . . sucks. If it's bad, no one is going to take it," he said.
Not everyone is going to take the bus, or ride a bike, or walk to campus, El-Geneidy said. Some people are so wedded to their vehicle that "if you do a brain scan of them, you'll find a car," he said.
"You will never get it down to zero (per cent driving). If you get it to 10 (per cent), I think that would be very good."
