10 Questions We All Want To Ask The UT Knoxville Transportation System
Let’s all say it together: parking at UT blows, for both commuters and non-commuters. Don’t even get me started on Late Nite campus transit.
If parking and getting around on campus has never made you want to rage quit, I’m convinced that you’re only posing as a student.
I have lived on campus for three years, two years at Massey Hall and one at Humes/Orange Hall (don’t even get me started on that bulls***), and I plan to commute next semester. Ever since my sophomore year when I got a job in west Knoxville, parking has become a daily stressor for me, and for thousands of other students who come to campus from their individual destinations. I have parked in four different parking garages and four different lots, and I’ve learned the hack is that you can always find a spot in the top level of any garage, but lots of people haven’t figured that, or the fact that on weekends you can park in staff lots, out yet.
Here I have formulated 10 questions for the UT Knoxville transportation system that I demand answers to, because I am pretty frickin’ tired of saying “frick it” and parking in commuter when I am desperate and don’t want to have to ride the bus from where I park to where I live.
1. Dear UTCSO, why don’t y’all write citations for people who park like they’ve been behind the wheel for two days?
If y’all were wondering who keeps writing you little notes that say “nice parking, jackwagon,” the answer is yours truly.
2. Have y’all ever thought about making freshmen who use their car once a month park in an offsite garage on Kingston Pike?
Most freshman don’t have jobs, and it’s very frustrating to see the same exact cars in the smaller lots closer to housing every time we are desperately looking for a spot kind of close to home. If they can’t prove that they have a job that they have to commute to, they should have to park further away. We know damn good and well that you have one somewhere on that stretch of road.
3. Late Nite, why do y’all stop for ten minutes in front of the library when that’s probably when you have the most students trying to get home?
(^ Actual footage of me sitting on Late Nite in front of Hodges)
I have a great story for this one: I park at Vol Hall and live in Orange Hall, and by the time I get home I’ve been on the bus for thrity minutes. Call me lazy for not walking all you want, but you try walking home in the dark as a woman on this campus and see how you feel about it.
4. And also Late Nite, why don’t y’all stop at every Late Nite stop?
Or at least the ones in front of parking lots, garages, and residence halls. Just because you don’t see us there doesn’t mean that we ain’t there. Excuse me for sitting inside Vol Hall because it was snowing, but I don’t deserve to get passed up.
5. Does it not concern y’all at all how fast bus drivers drive?
Because I can’t lie… I have been in fear for my life on occasion.
6. Ever consider making parking a free-for-all?
Not to say that I don’t think you should sell parking passes… But I don’t think that you should ticket people parked in staff and commuter spots if there are visible parking spots available to those permit holders. And especially not between 3PM and 5PM when most of those people have gone home for the day. That’s just dirty.
7. T-Link, why will y’all drive people to Fort parties but you won’t pick people up from a parking garage and take them to their residence hall?
The closest bus to me won’t be here for 16 minutes and you wanna tell me to walk in the dark to Hodges? Frick that.
8. Why don’t y’all have counters in every garage yet?
TBH I don’t even wanna think about how much gas I have used looking for parking spots in full garages.
9. Why haven’t y’all brought community bikes to campus yet?
I can’t even tell you how helpful that would be, even though it probably is a conflict with campus transit.
10. On gamedays, why do the parking attendents try to tell me I can’t park in non-commuter garages?
I promise you I have a pass.
Parking sucks for everybody. It’s never gonna stop sucking. But at least I can blog about it, right?
