College Parking Can Be A Pain!
When I was going through the community college is when I bought my first bike. That is when I started riding. At first I parked politely in a parking space. One day the police officer that issued tickets caught me getting off my bike, told me that they needed my space, and suggest that I park under a tree, or anywhere that I wanted on campus. The only rule was to stay out of the handi-cap spot and not block the sidewalks. So I started to get creative. Eventually the novely of parking between the picnic tables wore off. Nobdoy would ever hold the door open and help me get that CB750 into the building. Eventually I moved back into the parking lot my last semester.
I visited some other community colleges and realized that they had motorcycle specific parking, so I started swinging by the police office every few days and dropping a note in the suggestion box that they should do that at our school. They never did anything about it. However, after I left they did eventually put in motorcycle parking. When I came back to teach at that same community college the campus had a line of parking spaces for motorcycles up at the front of the campus, so it was really nice to get such great parking. Oddly enough they did put it in around the spots that I parked in my last semester.
I remember a report in paper from Auburn University, Alabama, says that the use of motorcycles by college students has increased, leading to parking problems. It makes sense that motorcycle usage by college students is increasing. Seemingly all colleges are struggling with parking as they try to bring in more and more students, that is not neccessarilly a fault of the bikers, it is just a new college problem in general.
True, historically, Americans drive cars as their transit of choice, hence all parking facilities are designed for cars. However, more colleges need motorcycle parking. College is a great time for young people to get their first bike, or to launch into a lifetime of riding their bike everywhere. It makes sense that they would make parking easier for the already easy to park motorcycles. It seems after the communtiy college, back when I was a student, each college that I've attended has handled motorcycle parking differently.
After the community college I went on to a four-year school. The Catholic College required me to use a parking sticker, but did not hassle me about where I parked. The Baptist College after the Catholic College did not hassle me about where I parked, but did try to insist that I put a hang tag on my rearview mirror on my windshield. I had to go to the campus police station and point out that I didn't have a windshield locked away behind closed car doors. They did have the nerve to suggest that I should drive my car instead to make the hang tag easier to use. My eyes must have looked like a cross between Bill Bixby and his Lou-d other self as I politely explained that it was not their choice which vehicle I used. They dug through a closet and found a roll of parking stickers for bikes that they had never used and had forgotten that they had. They decided I could use the little sticker and I'd be fine. After that I was.
When I finally made it to post-grad work at Chapel-Hill I told them up front that I was bringing a bike and that I needed a parking pass accordingly. They assured me up front that they would record my plate and I'd have no problem. As one might guess I recieved three parking tickets in my last two days on campus. I fought them and had them dismissed, but still, I had to spend my last days on campus fighting tickets.
Now I'm starting to make plans to head to IUP to work on my PhD this summer. I called my advisor the other day and asked about parking. He was suprised, most people don't ask about parking. They had enough parking for the summers generally until recently. Recently the college started doing some renovation and have been closing parking lots randomly. So parking is a problem for everyone. It will be curious to see how that turns out for me. I can leave my bike nearly anywhere. However, I try to do it legally when possible. We'll have to wait and see.
