Where’s my parking space?

“Parking is just horrible, they should do something about that,” criminal justice junior Noelani Castellano said.

Parking specifically has been a chief concern among students at UTRGV.

In order to voice the student’s opinion, I took the liberty to ask about their parking experiences during their time at the university.

Electrical engineering senior Feigh-Hung Lee asked why sophomores and freshmen are now allowed to park in Zone 2 when he was denied that opportunity as a freshman.

“I always thought that was a good privilege for juniors and seniors ’cause you would want to come to school,” Lee said. “But now that freshmen and sophomores have that opportunity, I don’t want to pay for the permit anymore cause what’s the point? There is no space.”

Director of Parking Services Pablo Aguilar, explained how their solution was based on an equity issue, especially when dealing with parents, in response to Lee’s concern.

“Concerned parents said, ‘How can my child park at the furthest location, or they’re forced in a way to park in a further location, versus the other students that have been more time on campus and they know their way around,’” Aguilar said.

Asked where he finds parking when spaces are unavailable, Lee said he sometimes parks at Dairy Queen.

Business senior Irvin Gomez believes the scheduling has a lot to do with parking issues.

“Well, I don’t know where other people park, but my past two years, I park in Zone 2, and I don’t have too much of a problem,” Gomez said. “Then again, it can be the scheduling.”

At the moment he parks off-campus, since this year he did not order his permit either.

“If you actually look at the numbers, we are getting bigger and bigger [as a] school,” Gomez said. “The parking garage would be the best solution.”

Which brings me to my main point. Is a parking garage possible?

“Here at UTRGV, we assess the supply and the demand for parking and it’s a continual basis,” Aguilar said. “So while it may become necessary in the future, there are currently no plans to make a parking garage because there is still plenty of underutilized remote parking.”

He also explained how the standard ratio for permits to space is 4, which means, that for every parking space, up to four vehicles can use that parking space during the day, since not everyone enrolled attends campus at the same time.

The ratio for UTRGV is one parking space for every three vehicles, which is under the standard.

With about 6,900 parking spaces for students in Edinburg, and another 1,800 spaces in Brownsville, without including the common areas the university shares with Texas Southmost College, which is an additional 2,000 spaces, the department has been analyzing the demand as far as parking spaces and is working toward a solution to accommodate everyone.

“For example, in 2017, we were able to add Parking Lot B4 in Brownsville,” Aguilar said. “That was an additional 295 parking spaces … and it still goes heavily underutilized. People don’t really use it.”

Asked about the possibility of creating more parking spaces, Aguilar said in 2017, 2018 the university added an additional 207 spaces on the Edinburg campus with a parking expansion in parking Lot E25 and E26, which also included rezoning in Brownsville due to the high demand of parking spaces, especially within Zone 2.

Students in Brownsville are still parking at Lincoln Park and walking the remaining distance instead of purchasing a parking permit, just like Castellano, from the Edinburg campus, who would rather park at Walmart.

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