21 December 2011

Commuters locked out of UC parking

| Keijidosha
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Commuters who currently park and ride using the abundance of free parking on Bimbimbie Street (off College Street) might be interested to know that UC are in the process of locking down their carparks for the exclusive use of students and staff.

Boom gates are currently being installed, and once operational will require a student/staff pass for access.

As a side note I was surprised to discover that these carparks were controlled by UC, and curious about why they feel the need to prevent public access to carparks that rarely (if ever) reach full capacity.

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ML-585 said :

As someone who, on occasion, has used the UC carpark for Park & Ride purposes – yes, it is on UC land, but without ANY signage or parking restrictions there was nothing stopping me or anyone else from using the carpark.

A new location on College St has been identified and “will be included in the Transport for Canberra construction program beginning in 2011-12”.

In the meantime, the Transport for Canberra website claims that construction of new site is underway at Purdue St for completion by the end of 2011, although I’ve not noticed it.

Cool! But they are talking about Pinaroo St at UC, which would require a bit of setting up and might not be too big, depending on how much money they have to spend. I personally still think the triangular gravel carpark that is already built to the right of CISAC (on this map) would be quicker and easier to set up though:
http://tinyurl.com/cysecy4
And there is already a bus stop very close to it.

As someone who, on occasion, has used the UC carpark for Park & Ride purposes – yes, it is on UC land, but without ANY signage or parking restrictions there was nothing stopping me or anyone else from using the carpark.

A new location on College St has been identified and “will be included in the Transport for Canberra construction program beginning in 2011-12”.

In the meantime, the Transport for Canberra website claims that construction of new site is underway at Purdue St for completion by the end of 2011, although I’ve not noticed it.

p1 said :

lore said :

Your card/access to IT services ect ceases to work after the census date if you withdraw- I’m assuming the same would go for the new car parking arrangements.

Several times I was a part time student (doing one unit while working full time) – I used to enrole in a full course load, get a student card with “full time” on it, then in-enroll in everything except the course I wants to do. It meant I could access concessions on the bus, movies, etc.

But if you drop all courses, the magnetic swipe part of the card will stop working, so it will be no good a the Uni.

Sorry, I meant if you withdraw from ALL classes, obviously if you are still doing at least one unit it will work 🙂

lore said :

Your card/access to IT services ect ceases to work after the census date if you withdraw- I’m assuming the same would go for the new car parking arrangements.

Several times I was a part time student (doing one unit while working full time) – I used to enrole in a full course load, get a student card with “full time” on it, then in-enroll in everything except the course I wants to do. It meant I could access concessions on the bus, movies, etc.

But if you drop all courses, the magnetic swipe part of the card will stop working, so it will be no good a the Uni.

Your card/access to IT services ect ceases to work after the census date if you withdraw- I’m assuming the same would go for the new car parking arrangements.

“As a side note I was surprised to discover that these carparks were controlled by UC,”

I’m surprised that the big University of Canberra signs at the university campus gates on College St (College St refers to the “Canberra College of Advanced Education”) and the 40 km/h speed limit didn’t alert you to the fact that yes you are driving onto a university campus and yes everything is controlled by that university (including the roads and their maintenance). I know I’m sounding like a complete smarty here but please get your facts straight before complaining about a privilege that was never granted to you in the first place.

Merry Christmas 🙂

dpm said :

In reality, you may not even have to pay for the classes (or attempt to get your degree)! I’m suspected that if you enrolled, got your card, then pulled out before the census/payment date each semester/year, your card will still be valid for the year! Hahaha!

costs are marginal anyway, say you had to do one course a semester, that’s still 2k/year.. That also doesn’t take into account any enrolment fees, textbooks, “student services fees” etc. (in comparison, $10/day parking x 5 days x 50 weeks = $2500.

http://www.canberra.edu.au/study-abroad/at-uc/intl-students/costs

oh and afaik, you could only withdraw twice or so without raising eyebrows, that also assumes they don’t cancel parking cards after the census date.

Pork Hunt said :

devils_advocate said :

LOL, if you really needed to park there would almost be worth picking up a unit at the start of each year. It’s not as if you’d need to turn up to pass the class and after a few years you could have a degree in PE or something.

What? Can someone translate this pls?

They are basically saying you could enroll there (and be a ‘student’) and then park there with your new UC pass (even though not attending any lectures etc). They also insinutated that you’d also get a degree at the end without studying – probably a standard ANU (or other Uni) versus UC pissing contest. Let’s not go there….
In reality, you may not even have to pay for the classes (or attempt to get your degree)! I’m suspected that if you enrolled, got your card, then pulled out before the census/payment date each semester/year, your card will still be valid for the year! Hahaha!

Well good. Why shouldn’t they? If a student can’t find a park because some public servants are using the spots, that’s pretty bad. Crisp Cct was absolutely clogged with cars down the bottom of the street for ages because of this. The suburb is not a parking lot. Not a problem anymore, although now you have to wade through the jungle of no parking signs the govt put up. Why they couldn’t just invest in a bucket of red paint, I don’t know.

devils_advocate said :

LOL, if you really needed to park there would almost be worth picking up a unit at the start of each year. It’s not as if you’d need to turn up to pass the class and after a few years you could have a degree in PE or something.

What? Can someone translate this pls?

So they’re stopping freeloaders? great.

I’m surprised that the University has let an obviously valuable asset sit around getting abused by non staff and non students for many years. Says to me that they have a slack and lazy administration.

p1 said :

Keijidosha said :

I’m just disappointed that this decision will discourage more people from using public transport. The carpark is perfectly situated on the Blue Rapid route and makes commuting to the city cheap, quick and very convenient.

Maybe action could look into putting a specific park and ride car park somewhere near there?

I noticed when I walked up College St recently that there seems to be a big gravel car park just next to/up from CISAC? I think it is part of CISAC? Not sure if it is closed off, but it would be an easy one to park at and get to the bus stop – if it is open….?

It is inaccurate to say “for the exclusive use of students and staff”, the website (you linked to) says “There will still be several short-stay car parks available for visitors.” If you have no business at the university then leave your car at home and try one of these suggestions:

1. get the bus from your suburban street.
2. carpool with your workmates and split the civic parking fees.
3. Get a job or study at the university.

During semester come about 9am the car parks are getting full and start to empty about 3-4pm. UC have recently installed a couple of tar’d and dirt car parks in the past year which has eased things a little. But try getting a park during the middle of the day, and you will have a challenge.

The situation isnt helped by the building of new resi’s without the car parking to accommodate them. And the tendency of students to have complete and utter disregard for fellow people and will park their car where ever they can find enough space, even if it means half a dozen other people can no longer get their car out!!!

As an contractor to UC and regularly has to go to site to repair/install equipment I applaud the installation of the boom gates. It will mean that I dont have to park and carry tools kilometres to do my job because other people (who have no connection to UC) feel that they are more entitled to the UC parking.

I go to UC, and I can say that the carpark is at full capacity every day during university semester. You can only get a park before 9am. And the carpark is there for students of UC, it’s not a park and ride carpark.

Keijidosha said :

I’m just disappointed that this decision will discourage more people from using public transport. The carpark is perfectly situated on the Blue Rapid route and makes commuting to the city cheap, quick and very convenient.

Maybe action could look into putting a specific park and ride car park somewhere near there?

Fair points about the carparks being full during the day. I guess my comment about low usage is skewed by the fact I arrive before 9am and return after 5pm, when the area is a ghost town.

Just to be clear, my article isn’t a whinge about entitlement. I have no problem with UC ensuring adequate parking for students and staff – I’m just disappointed that this decision will discourage more people from using public transport. The carpark is perfectly situated on the Blue Rapid route and makes commuting to the city cheap, quick and very convenient.

C’est la vie, my fellow commuters will need to find somewhere else to park, or give up and add to the congestion by driving into the city.

I don’t think its related to pay parking. I haven’t heard anything regarding that around here.

Here is a little bit more info on the uc website: http://www.canberra.edu.au/bettercampus/car-parks

From my experience, almost all the car parks are FULL around here, most of the semester. Sure the uni could open up a few more fields, even further away from uni, or they could take a few measures to stop others abusing their land. some of the dirt car parks they have now are getting pretty away from the rest of the uni.

I guess we’ll see how much of a difference it makes with parking, but anything they do must help, as its pretty bad around here, and every year they declare a record amount of enrollements.

The parking has always been tight there for students so keeping anyone who isnt staff or students out is a fair and reasonable approach to take.

Rarely at capacity? Yeah right! It is very bad at the start of semester in particular (people tend to drop out after one or two months). I complained a bit about it when I was studying/working there 5ish years ago. The claim was that the boom gates would cause a fringe benefit liability on the car parks. Apparently that’s acceptable now.

About time, I say.

bitzermaloney3:17 pm 21 Dec 11

dpm said :

From my experience there, that carpark (like all UC parking) is at full capacity during the Uni semesters. Anyway, my guess is someone probably complained about it….
Though it is interesting that they would rather install boomgates instead of just adding an extra (gravel?) carpark on one of the vacant pieces of land there (like at the temp car park place they have used in the first few weeks in recent years – before heaps of people drop out before the census date)!
Surely that would be a similar price to do – and result in a lot more parking than just excluding a few park and ride cars…?

I think you’ll find that this is a pre-cursor to introduce paid parking for non-university related parking.

devils_advocate3:12 pm 21 Dec 11

LOL, if you really needed to park there would almost be worth picking up a unit at the start of each year. It’s not as if you’d need to turn up to pass the class and after a few years you could have a degree in PE or something.

From my experience there, that carpark (like all UC parking) is at full capacity during the Uni semesters. Anyway, my guess is someone probably complained about it….
Though it is interesting that they would rather install boomgates instead of just adding an extra (gravel?) carpark on one of the vacant pieces of land there (like at the temp car park place they have used in the first few weeks in recent years – before heaps of people drop out before the census date)!
Surely that would be a similar price to do – and result in a lot more parking than just excluding a few park and ride cars…?

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