A Parking Disaster

The parking situation at Framingham State University needs to be addressed. My best friend transferred to Framingham State this year and was disgusted with the parking arrangement at Framingham. Commuter students are allowed to park in Maple lot, State Street lot and Adams lot. Maple lot is simply a constant traffic jam and made up of poor parking jobs by commuters. Resident students have to park down near the football field and some residents have to park at Union lot which is far away and students have to be bused down to retrieve their car.

There are simply not enough parking spaces in Maple lot for commuters. Cars park where ever and however they want. Sometimes, students make their own spots in places that are not marked as real spots. The spaces in Maple lot are really close together, which makes it tough for a person driving a truck or suv to park in these tight spots. Trucks and SUVs are constantly sticking out into the driving lanes and this makes it hard for commuters to drive back and forth looking for parking spots. Sometimes I have to stop and pull way over to the left or to the right so an on-coming car can pass me because of parked cars sticking out into the driving lanes.

Last year my car was hit while parked in Maple lot. My car was hit from behind and I was left with a good size dent in my bumper. Unfortunately there are no cameras in Maple lot so I ended up having to pay for the damages. The Framingham State police told me they do receive accident reports coming from Maple lot but there is nothing they can do because there are no cameras. The spots are too tight and cars are basically kissing each other’s bumpers to fit into these spots.

The other parking lot at Framingham is State Street lot which is less strenuous. State Street Lot easier to find parking spaces but the problem with parking at State Street is the walk up to school. Especially during the winter, when the cold weather comes, that walk up from State Street is not something someone looks forward to especially at 8:00 in the morning with the temperature barely cracking 30 degrees.

I believe the best solution for a more organized and convenient parking lot would be for Framingham State University to build a parking garage. The parking garage could be built on Maple lot and could consist of 3 levels. The first level would have roughly the same amount of parking spaces as it does now, and the second and third levels would have just as much. This would also help out in snow storms during the winter time when plow trucks would not have to plow the entire maple lot and have students move their cars. The only level that would have to be plowed would be the third level. Students might have to pay an extra cost for parking during the year, but the parking garage would benefit everyone. The garage would have more parking spaces and will be more organized. Students won’t have to swing out of the way of a car that is parked in the middle of a driving lane and will be able to avoid that awful walk up from Maple Lot.