Broadcast
helps improve parking
By
Lauren Nelson
Daily Forty-Niner
Parking
and Transportation and Event Services is
best known around the Long Beach State campus
for leaving green envelopes tucked under
the windshield wipers of student's cars.
However, this semester Parking Services
is trying to make staff and students realize
that there is more to the department than
just giving out expensive tickets.
A
new radio station, WPYE 1690 AM, provided
by Parking Services, is an advancement to
the campus by helping drivers by notifying
them of which lots to park in, traffic conditions
on campus, and any other information that
may be helpful for people going to CSULB
on a specific day.
Along
with helping those who drive to school,
AM 1690 also has useful information for
those people who use alternative transportation
to get to campus. The Campus Connection
Shuttles that circle around full loads of
students from East Campus to Pacific Coast
Highway is one convenience that is provided
by Parking Services. Also, if students who
drive to school can't afford the $1.75 daily
parking permit or the $63 semester parking
sticker, Parking Services also provides
parking at the Veterans Stadium next to
Long Beach City College campus on Clark
and Carson Street, which does not require
a permit. Approximately every fifteen minutes,
Monday through Thursday, a shuttle bus picks
students up from there and takes them to
their destinations on campus until 12:30
p.m. This system is expected to assist students
when all of the student parking spaces are
filled or if students don't want to hassle
with the on-campus parking. This information
is provided on the radio station.
WPYE
1690 AM began this fall. To inform students,
signs have been placed at campus entrances
and at intersections to advertise the new
information station. Field Services Manager,
Alan Moore, said that by next year it is
hoped that there will be other ways, like
through e-mail, to inform drivers of the
radio station along with other services
provided by the department.
Many
students are skeptical of the radio station
and feel there is no need for it because
traffic situations are not intense on campus.
"It's
not like our campus is all huge and we have
so many places to park that we need guidance
to get around," said psychology student
Janice Doan who makes the trek from the
parking structure to the Liberal Arts buildings
every day. "We know it's going to be
crowded and crappy anyway. We make do with
what we can find."
Parking
Services is well aware of its bad reputation
on campus but assures everyone that they
are here to do more good than harm. The
Jitney is one service that helps staff and
faculty get to upper campus from lots one
and eighteen. It is the hopes of Parking
Services to make life on campus more convenient
for those who live, work and study at CSULB.
"Every
service except parking tickets goes unnoticed.
We are here to make your visit a nice one,"
Moore said.
One
concern from students is that Parking Services
will encourage its officers give out more
parking citations in hopes to earn the funding
for the radio station. However, Moore explains
that there is no need for funding because
the radio station does not cost anything.
There was only the cost of the initial equipment
which the department has paid for.
WPYE
is updated as often as things change around
campus. Parking Officer and Events
Supervisor, Pete Ta'ase, whose voice is
heard on the station, updates it almost
daily. He said he can now update the information
from his cell phone when he is not in the
office. Though the radio signal only reaches
between three to five miles from campus,
it is still useful when commuters arrive
because they will be informed of any full
lots and where they should park instead.
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