Parking lots receive new look

By Stacey DeFever, On-Line Forty-Niner

Monday, September 14, 1998

New parking lot designations at Cal State Long Beach are meant to create less confusion to students, staff and visitors not familiar with the campus. Name changes were made on half of the 20 lots, most of them changing from a letter to a number.

The new numbering system begins with Lot 1 near the entrance on Bellflower Boulevard and makes a complete circle around campus, ending with Lot 20, formerly Lot G.

The decision to make these changes was made in 1996 by a panel composed of both students and faculty. It has taken this long to piece together everything needed to make the change, including sending notices and maps to all students and faculty.

Response to the changes has been positive so far this semester, according to Thomas W. Bass, senior director of parking and transportation services at CSULB.

"But with any kind of change there is bound to be some confusion or complaints somewhere down the line," Bass said.

Parking permit revenues are up by approximately 10 percent this semester, but the figures are not yet final. Students may purchase a permit at any time throughout the semester. Each week, the cost of a student parking permit drops by about $4.

As of Sept. 10, 6,106 parking violations have been given out, mostly to student cars without permits.

"This is about the same number of violations we gave out at this time last year," Bass said.

If purchasing a permit does not sound like a good idea, students may want to look into carpooling. Carpool passes are free, and the parking spaces are ideal compared to most of the spaces available to students. Participants in this program are required to sign a contract with parking services, and are held accountable primarily on the honor system. More than 800 students so far this semester have taken advantage of this program.

Parking enforcement officers randomly watch for violators, although there is no sure way to keep students from abusing the privilege of using the carpool program. The penalty for exiting a car alone while parked in a carpool spot is $25 and revocation of the permit.

Not once during the semester has every one of the campus' 12,493 spots been filled, although there seems to be very little parking during the peak hours of noon to 1:30 p.m..

On Tuesday and Thursday during the first week of fall classes, only 150 parking spaces were available during peak hours. Each week the number of available spots has increased. Currently there are between 500 to 800 available spots in the peak times of the day, and will most likely increase to over 1000.

"It is the nature of college students to be more involved on campus during the first few weeks of school until they finally settle into a routine," Bass said.

CSULB has also added one additional campus shuttle during the busiest times of the day, and a new stop has been placed near the music department. Bass said that this has helped meet the demand of students wanting to ride the shuttle to and from class.

Parking services is always looking for new ways to better serve CSULB and is currently working on increasing parking spaces on the south end of campus. According to Bass, there is some wasted space near Seventh Street, which they are hoping to renovate into about 40 new parking spots. Plans for these changes are tentative.