Parking Gone Wrong || UTAS

Parking Gone Wrong

The University of Tasmania's Sandy Bay campus continues to grow, with new students attending the university ever year. However accommodating these people seems to be to be an ongoing issue for UTAS according to students, especially within the parking sector.

The parking issues at UTAS are continuously developing with the number of students attending UTAS growing each year. Currently there are over 30,000 students attending UTAS and although they do not all attend the Sandy Bay campus, in 2012 the majority of students studied at the Hobart campus according to the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Students feel UTAS needs to accommodate these numbers within the parking domain.

I have experienced the parking issue first hand at the Sandy Bay campus. As a recent provisional driver you can imagine my excitement when I realised I would no longer have to catch the Metro public transport system for one and half hours of a morning and nearly two and a half at night (with the traffic congestion) to get to and from the university. Little did I know that there would be a bigger issue to face. The parking.

I had heard about the issues from friends but it wasn't until I arrived at midday on the first day back at university that I realised my fatal mistake. The car parks were full, as were all the side streets that were close to the university. I was lucky enough that a man let me use his drive way for parking as he did not need it that day but I had already spent half an hour searching for a space. Valuable time I could have spent studying was lost to driving around for a park.

One student posted on Facebook "It's a pretty sad state of affairs when you get to uni 30 minutes early and are still late to class because you can't find a park. I'm not paying for a $30000+ HECS debt for classes I can't even go to just because [UTAS] has inadequate facilities".  Students should not have to miss class time to find a park as it should be an amenity that is functional and practical.

Another university student, Ella Edwards said "we definitely have a parking problem at UTAS because they give out more permits than parks."

As students we pay Students Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF) that according to UTAS' website are for a "non-academic nature". Surely this could cover the voucher parking, that if we want to park close to the uni we have to pay for. Miss Edwards agrees that we shouldn't have to pay. Especially because we already "pay thousands of dollars for our courses."

"I think they should ditch one of the ovals and make more student parking available or make a levelled parking [garage]." This could be an alternative solution. The number of students attending UTAS will only continue to grow as people continue their academic studies. A solution needs to be found to accommodate them."