The survey simply showed the obvious fact that almost everybody as ASU drives to campus. I served for a time on the downtown campus advisory committee.

Without fail the number one potential problem put forth by the students on the board was parking. Without fail the problem that was ignored most by the decision makers on the committee was parking: "The light rail will handle it; we will encourage people to live on campus; we will implement shuttle service from one campus to another."

You must address this issue. With a growing campus and Phoenix's commuting culture, please just break down and build big parking structures.

Charge us more; we'll get over it. But we need to park and we would prefer to not have to add an addition daily hour to our already-hour-long commute for the walk to our classes.

I know someone who used to be a senator who told me ASU sold off lot 59 and that they were trying to keep it quiet. President Crow...can you confirm or deny this?

I see someone above also mentioned that lot 59 is no longer in future maps...this very well may be why. If so, I can imagine why ASU wouldn't want the students to find out about this.

I had another comment/question after looking at the picture of main campus in the future (after all the new building are built, etc). What i noticed is that lot 59 is gone. What are you going to do about all those lost parking spots. I did see the additional parking structure next to 7, but that cannot possibly make up for all those spots. Not only will this affect ASU daily, what about the football games? I would really like to know where people will park after the spots are taken away for "premiere" housing next to the lake and what looks to be grassy areas.

I have to agree with most of the posts above mine. What were they thinking when they built structure 1? It should be 6 or 7 stories. I understand that parking structures are expensive to build, but they do generate a lot of money. I would really like to see information about how long it takes for a structure to pay for itself.

Since I, along with others, live in the southeast valley, there are currently no buses that run in my area. By the time I drive to a park-n-ride I might as well finish the drive into campus. Please consider putting in a park-n-ride out at the polytechnic campus so we can utilize the free bus pass. Currently the cost is 75$ a year for a decal and then 1.50 each way for the school shuttle. Since there is room at the polytechnic campus in which people could come to the campus and park, to ride the bus we would be much better off, I think it would better serve the community, ASU, and the environment.
I think with the right promotions, and advertising ASU could generate a lot of interest in the ASU community by allowing this type of service. There is currently not a big enough area in the east valley to promote this type of transportation, except for the polytechnic campus.
There is plenty of room at the polytechnic campus so let's use it. Again this would not only be applicable to students of ASU but anyone needed to get to the Tempe Campus area would then be more likely to park their car out at the Polytechnic Campus and shuttle into the area.
Thus if ASU were to offer a small fee for a permit that would promote this type of activity and allow all people to utlize the park-n-ride at the Polytechnic campus and pick up a valley metro bus, ASU would be generating revenue to maintain the lot, potentially allow for wireless internet access on buses, keep the traffic somewhat down on the freeways, potentially release some of the parking spaces at the tempe campus and keep the campus in the East valley growing and generating interest.
I must say the parking out at the Polytechnic Campus is great. With the more programs that are being offered here though, it is only a matter of a couple of years before it becomes an issue.

I understand that parking structures are not cheap to build, however compared to a building (such as the several beening built or completed on main campus right now) I would assume it is much cheaper with minimal housekeeping costs. On top of which, I believe parking structures would create much more revenue compared to an academic building, especially since once the structure is paid off, most of the revenue coming in from it is profit. I do not know how plausible this is, but everytime I drive by the airport, I think how it would be wonderful if ASU built one or two parking structures of that size - 8 stories, thousands of parking spots, one time deal. We could have one on north campus and one on south campus and be done with it. Also, seeing as how PS 1 is the most wanted structure and one of the smallest, shut it down for one summer and expand it - make it taller, do something with it!
As someone mentioned before, ASU is a commuter school, one cannot expect nor should expect 50 thousand students to live on campus, not only because it is impractical but also because it is insensitive to students needs. The idea of moving out of one's parents home is a very Western way of thinking to begin with, and so it should never be forced upon a student. Many cultures highly discourage young adults from moving away from their family before marriage unless it is absolutely necessary. Living on campus while your family is 10 -20 miles away is by no means absolutely necessary, in fact some would argue it is a pure waste of funds, and thousands of students cannot afford this. As ASU is a growing school, one needs to take into account the diversity of the school's population.

One last note, I acknowledge the attempt by ASU to ease parking woes by offering bus passes and it is a noble attempt. However this is not New York or Europe. Arizona is state of urban sprawl - the public transit system here is horrible and no amount of buses is going to accomodate the massive size of this state. Though bus passes may be helpful to those living within and near Tempe, buses simply take too much time if one lives more than 10 miles away from campus in my opinion.

I lived in Central Phoenix my 4 years at ASU and took the bus almost every day those 4 years. It takes about 45 mins - 1 hour each direction. I even had the pleasure of taking the shuttle from Main to West for a semester. While this was by no means the most pleasurable experience, especially during the summer, it was convenient and allowed me to catch up on my studies.

My suggestion would echo some of the other responses. First, I would highly encourage the surrounding communities to enhance or start bus service to and from campus, especially later in the evenings when night classes end. I also like the idea of secure parking lots/garages located away from campus with regular shuttle service. I would also suggest increasing the size and accessability of the current parking garages. Finally, if bigger and more parking garages is the answer, please look into at least a portion of the space being underground. The Tempe campus already has a big enough aestetic problem being in the center of a major metropolitan area without being surrounded by monstrous parking garages.

By the way, I really appreciate this idea for a regular blog. I look forward to reading the ideas you have for our beloved school.

One of the reasons the bus system is awful in Arizona is no one is using it and making demands of it. New York and Europe didn't just sprout a great transit system overnight, and neither will we. Pick up your bus pass and use it. See how much homework you can get done. Find a Park and Ride. This can't work for everyone, obviously, but I have a friend that parked at ASU at the West campus every day, and then took the shuttle here. She did very well in her lecture classes. Even if you do it occasionally, it will ease the parking situation on campus. The more people we have involved in the public transit system, the more investment will be made into making it great.

Over the years I've come to realize that ASU parking will be a nightmare until a major change comes along to fix it. Most mornings I don't mind riding the FLASH to and from my parking space because I've found things I can do to pass that time. I The thing that irritates me is when Lot 59 is rented out for other purposes. Last year I drove into the very north end of Lot 59 to get on the FLASH only to discover that the parking lot was for ASU football season ticket holders and I and the rest of the decal holders had to park in the dirt and walk the additional distance from our cars to the bus stop. A game that started at 7 at night had parking reserved starting at 10am. Another time I drove in to find that the lot was being used for a car dealership. I think that you really slap students in the face when every day we put up with parking miles from campus, riding a bus adding at least half an hour to get to class from the parking lot, and then tell us that the $75 we paid for a parking pass was good for the whole school year, except when ASU finds something better to use our spaces for.

This post has nothing to do with parking, but raises a new concern.

I am a graduate student in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering. Our department chair has recently announced that he is stepping down as chair. As of now, the Fulton School of Engineering also finds itself without a dean.

I find it interesting that Dr. George Poste, a non-engineer, has been appointed (I assume by you, Dr. Crow) to head the search committees to find replacements for both of these positions. While I am not questioning Dr. Poste's acclaim as a scientist, some of us can't help but wonder what he's been doing to earn such prestigious appointments within the ASU community? Especially ones for which he is probably not the most suitable appointee.

Your comments would be appreciated, Dr. Crow.

While I appreciate everyone's comments on parking issues on campus, I do not appreciate everyone's efforts towards improving the issues. I live only 4 miles from campus. Any day that I do not need to drive to my other job in Phoenix straight from ASU, I take the bus. I understand that this is not a reasonable option for many students who live far from campus, but there are way too many students who live near campus who still feel the need to drive. My concern is that people who would easily be able to take advantage of the bus sytem are either too lazy or too selfish to do so. Please start being considerate to those who need the parking spots more than you do!

Hi Dr. Crow,

I appreciate what you are doing with this blog and it is a good start. However, it is still not a method where students can get information on current events and communicate with other students in an efficient and timely manner. For example, in today's news on the ASU website, it indicated that a search was underway to find a replacement for Dr. Glick and listed the members of the search committee. Unless I missed it, it appeared that no one representing physics, chemistry, biology or mathematics was included. Considering that the U.S. continues to slip in world wide ranking in these critical areas, the lack of inclusion of faculty members in those areas is of concern. Yet, I have no way to offer feedback or get information other than to post to your blog and hope you respond. Also, my request for information is not on your current topic so it is necessarily extraneous to the topic currently being discussed.

My suggestion is to set up University wide access to an Administration sponsored Blackboard website broken down into individual topic areas and to be reviewed weekly by the relevant administrators in those topic areas. Of course, questions could still be directed at you but this would save time as many times questions to you would have to be referred to other administrators in any event. Also, it would allow students to go to a single location and immediately post questions as well as comments such as on the situation with this hiring process that seems to exclude scientists and mathematicians. It would also allow students to network with each other and compare notes so to speak as to what they have been told to clear up rumors and gossip which is one of the reasons you mentioned in starting your blog in the first place.

I have one other suggestion and that is to use the vast mind power of the student body at ASU to make this a better place for all. Simply telling students after the fact what has been decided does not tend to make students feel that they are fully engaged in their own educational experience. To improve this situation I would suggest you start a program on your website or on a separate website that allows students to make suggests for improvement in any area of campus life that they wish. Of course, hopefully the students will take this as a cue to not just say "fix it" but to offer detailed suggestions, plans and ideas that they have thought through. If such a suggestion is actually adopted by the ASU administration they could offer a small prize such as a downloadable recognition letter and a small gift certificate to be used at the ASU bookstore. I saw a similar program used in private industry with great results because there was a positive benefit to making concrete suggestions rather than simple complaints. Of course, in terms of economics, the main problem is the start-up cost which I estimate to be small especially compared to the benefit of actually getting students involved with creating their own future here at the University and in society by their active involvement in the decision-making process.

My last suggestion perhaps should be directed at Dr. Sannier, since it deals with information flow at ASU. I have had difficulty in the past getting accurate information on a number of issues on campus and sometimes even conflicting information, for example, if and when the language requirement would be eliminated for B.S. majors. I am fairly proficient at research and using computers but find the current google search to be not completely helpful. A centralized source of information that students could search for answers would be helpful as well as the updating of systems that have been acknowledged to be inadequate for years such as the DARS system. Currently DARS still does not recognize in its computation students who are seeking two or more degrees. Therefore, the student has a difficult time figuring out exactly what their status is for graduation...and so do the academic advisors.

I believe these are critical areas where changes could eventually be made that would greatly improve the quality of life for students at Arizona State University and would respectfully ask that you give due consideration to these requests.

President Crow,
I appreciate you addressing the parking concerns of this campus and I do also want PTS to know that they are doing an amazing job providing parking to this university. I have immense concerns about the security responses of DPS and PTS for thefts from our vehicles.

On a side note, I was wondering if we could do some activities to boost pride on this campus. I am a big fan of the spirit Fridays for faculty and staff, but I know we can do much more. I would suggest that we put banners, such as those displayed from the light posts during homecoming, on the outside of each building on campus highlighting the various activities within. It is one thing to walk around campus and see the great structures, but a completely different experience to know what is housed within them and that these experiences are available for everyone. I also think street signs on campus would be a good move. Place maroon and gold street signs with the university walkway and mall names on them so it is easier to navigate and provide directions on this campus.

Again, thank you for addressing the concerns of both the students and staff on these matters.

As a middlish-aged employee among many middlish-aged employees, I have to say that it's tough to walk 10 or 15 minutes from your office to the closest parking spot (which you have to pay for) in unshaded 115 degree heat when you're leaving work, sick. Pretty brutal. As an employee performance reward, there's not much that would top near-by parking for a month in the summer. Except two months of close parking.

I wonder if it would be possible to create one or more supervised parking areas offsite, with frequent transportation to and from campus? Heck, if there were seats and wireless access in the waiting areas, we could work on our laptops, and if there were misters in the summer and heaters in the winter, we might actually enjoy the commute. We could get to know one another.

While I will agree with "Bob" that students are encouraged to live on campus (how can I not?), the argument that he should not have to walk from Lot 59 as he is a faculty/staff member concerns me. Bob may be wishing that he has a pass to Structure 1, but this is nearly impossible. As a student, I know that there is a waiting list for said structure that is ridiculously long (and by the way, this list is reserved first for faculty, then for staff, THEN for students). Bob may be wishing that he had a space in Lot 17 West or East (a residence hall lot), but then I ask this person about the safety of walking across campus late at night or early in the morning to get to the dorm when the students are displaced. How often is "Bob" on campus after 11:00 p.m. or before 6:00 a.m.? The safety escort service currently only has one working cart, so they certainly cannot transport all of these students to their dorms, and I assure you, there are many places for criminal acts to occur between Lot 59 and Ocotillo Hall, or worse yet, Sahuaro Hall.
Another concern that I should point out is that, currently, residence halls are reserved for underclassmen unless there is an extenuating circumstance. Granted, this was not always the case, but as we have such a large influx of freshman and we lack the ability to build enough space for them that the upperclassmen are pushed out of the dorm picture. We are, therefore, required to commute to campus just as a faculty/ staff member like "Bob" would, requiring us to use a car, take the bus, or, in the very best of circumstances, ride a bike.
For all those parking in the abyss that is Lot 59, the FLASH has been put into effect for you. I do believe that the hours should be extended ( I get to school at 5:30 a.m. many days and don't leave until at least 10:00 p.m.).
Whatever you get from this, please do not think that saying that faculty and/or staff should be put ahead of the students will make any of this better. Indeed, it will make it worse. Eventually, there will be a tier system where we will have to decide which is most important to the university. Though we strive to have the best faculty, the university would completely shut down without the staff (and I should not have to remind you that you would have no reason to be here if it were not for the students).
Jolie LaBrot

Students ARE encouraged to live on or around campus, but unfortunately this campus is a commuter campus (a fact that will never change) with 50,000+ students. the majority of which are local.

And depending on how south "south campus" is (i'm thinking apache), aren't most of those spots you desire reserved for the kids living on campus who have cars and don't commute anyway?

Anyways my two cents is just build bigger structures close to campus and charge enough to cover costs. I don't know where these concerns about expensive parking are, but at ASU that is just bull. At UT Austin they pay 900 bucks for an un-guaranteed spot in an oversold structure (that's way more than 4 stories), and you know what? They seem to sell all of their parking fine, so we really REALLY have it lucky as far as costs are concerned.

One of the most ridiculous items with the parking situation on campus is the metered parking. It's fairly obvious that the metered parking isn't there to provide parking so much as it is to milk us for additional revenue.

For the most part, all parking meters accept money only to a maximum of one hour. The problem with this being, that essentially ever class at ASU lasts over an hour (Not including 50 minute classes, which hardly count considering it will take at least 10-20 minutes to walk to/from the car to class). From the very beginning, meters are inadequate and are inherently designed to create parking tickets.

Additionally, the rates on metered parking recently increased. The amount of time a quarter, dime, and nickel buys was cut in half almost. Where a quarter previously bought 15 minutes, it's now 10. A dime once bought 6 minutes, and now its 3...etc. You pay more to get less.

Coupled with the diminishing time bought by pocket change is also an increase in parking tickets, from $15 to $25.

A small economic analysis:

I currently have 4 unpaid parking tickets, and one late charge for said tickets, for a total of $115. While the likelihood of every student on campus carrying the same deficit that I do is very slim, let's assume even 25% have 4 unpaid tickets, while the remaining 75% have 1 unpaid ticket.

65,000 students * $115 * .25 = $1,868,750
65,000 students * $25 * .75 = $406,250

Let's figure the average student throws $1.00 in change into the meter as well before getting ticketed for another $65,000.

Grand total: $1,868,750 + $406,250 + $65,000 = $2,340,000
(bear in mind this doesn't even take into account parking tickets from decal lots)

Now obviously, these numbers reflect no actual survey data (and are probably conservative at best), but they do illustrate a point.

If ASU is geographically constrained for parking, then why are parking lots becoming the targets for new buildings? And granted, parking structures do cost a significant amount of money, but if that is the case, where are the revenues from parking meters/parking citations being spent?

I don't even really see how your blog was a response or an answer to the parking situation. It pretty much threw a useless PTS survey at us and encouraged us to visit their website.

Sam, let the president of the university blog on one subject at a time. He is most likely investigating your complaints against the ISO and will form a well thought out blog after he has gathered all of the facts.

As for parking... an employee of the university should not be forced to park in Lot 59 when his or her office is located on the south side of campus [as is my case]. Students are encouraged to live on or around campus, minimizing their need to commute. Employees, especially those with families, may find it much more difficult and economically impractical to live near campus. For this reason, they should be entitled to parking spots closest to their office, ahead of any students.

Before we talk about parking, let's acknowledge the root of the problem--cars. How do we get around in Phoenix? We drive, and we drive alone. There's over 60,000 students here this semester. More are coming. I'd guess that at least 2/3 of the students here have cars that they use to commute in, alone. That's roughly 40,000 cars right now. On any given weekday, let's say that 40,000 students will have class and 25,000 of them will need to commute. Let's average the commute at 30 miles each way. If each student's car got, on average, 20 miles per gallon, then--on a per day basis, ASU students alone would burn through 75,000 gallons of gas each day just getting to class. Multiply that by 5 days per week, and that's 375,000 gallons of gas each week commuting to class.

Mr. Crow, I feel an urgent need for us to address our dependence on foreign oil. Not only is the world is running out of oil, but look what we are doing for it. We are sending American troops to war, because we like to drive our cars, we need their oil to drive our cars! American and Iraqi troops are dying to fulfill our right to drive our cars every day. Think about it--we sit in traffic and waste the very fuel that they are dying for. There's got to be a better way.

I implore you to lead this university into the future. And, even though we don't want it to be true, cars can't be the way of the future. Not unless we all drive cars powered by alternate fuel sources. For instance, we can store solar energy to drive our cars with. It's possible. We live in the Valley of The Sun! I ask that parking not be looked at as a form of revenue for the university, but a last resort. We should be biking, walking, riding light rail, riding buses, or driving electric cars. Instead of offering more parking, let's figure out a real solution to reducing the need for it. If doing nothing else, this measure would be aiding our city to be more pleasing to the eye. No one thinks parking garages are pretty, not even the new ones.

Robin welcome to the reality of oil consumption. But to say that we went to Iraq just for oil is simply not true. Solar energy is to expensive and doesn't generate the power needed if the population changed to electric cars, the only solution is to build more nuclear power plants but environmentalist will have a fit. The fact is yes we are running out of oil but we have much more than we think, if you consider that we have know about oil in the gulf of mexico for less than 50 years and some speculate we have more oil in the gulf of mexico than they do in the middle east. Anyways back to the parking mess, I am not happy with the parking meter times of only 1 hour at our school and having a parking ticket that cost $25, the other day i ran into the book store to return my books and waited in line i had put 1 hour worth of money into the meter and came back to my car. And i walked up to my car and the PTS ticket lady was 1 car down and turns and looks at me saying sorry hun you where minuet late now i am stuck with a $25 ticket. ASU needs to fire all the PTS ticket people and use that money to build more parking spaces, if you have 10 people that you can fire think of the money you can save at least 35grand a person with 10 people thats 1/3 of a million a year you can save. I am sure right now PTS only breaks even on tickets like most police departments and if they do make any money i hope it doesn't go to some high ranking employe and is better spent on improvements. Heck if you want fire everyone in PTS and ill do the job for a small fee and with the employee budget that you pay now i would build parking structures.

As someone said why cant we have parking underground? well it comes down to cost digging and building underground cost a lot of money.

If there are geographic constraints why does ASU not build an underground parking garage like Bryn Mawr has?

Also, since you brought it up President Crow over by structure 4 the construction leaves debris in the road. I just had the experience of getting new tires after a having a massive flat due to a giant screw and I can't help but think it happened as I left my parking structure.

Despite the widespread chronic angst about parking, I have been impressed with how well this mammoth and complex logistical problem has been addressed by PTS.

Unfortunately, cars are only one mode that people use in their commutes to campus, with the consequence that those alternative modes also are operated ON campus. I'm speaking primarily of bikes, but new technologies appear all the time. As a result, mall traffic as always had a parking problem of its own. ASU electric carts and other service vehicles, vendors and bikes all need places to park. For bikes, the problem is not that there are not enough bike racks, but that they are not secure. Bikes get stripped by thieves, vandalized or stolen entirely.

With the advent of university-owned Segways, secure parking at multiple convenient locations is becoming a topic of increasing interest, as is the idea of allowing privately-owned Segways and maybe even other personal, but not street-legal, electric vehicles such as electric scooters and skateboards. If university policy is changed to allow privately-owned Segways and other such personal electric vehicles, demand for convenient secure parking will no doubt increase.

If private and/or departmental operators of such personal modes are willing to pay for secure parking, be it for an ASU-owned Segway, a private bike or personal electric vehicle, would you support the idea of creating multiple, conveniently located secure parking facilities throughout the Tempe Campus?

Thanks,

David

I took one class at main this semester and parking is too say the least a disaster. I avoided main for my college just to avoid the parking problems. I would have used the bus pass program, in fact I took one at the start of the semester but it did no good. I could get to school but could't get home because the buses that would take me back stopped running at 7pm. I'd say the city of Tempe is not helping the situation and it may be in the best interest of the school to work directly with them on making sure all class shifts are covered. As for East students, parking is not a problem yet,however it will be soon with the rapid growth in the East valley and needs to be addressed now before another situation like main occurs.

You are still dodging the question on the International Student office.

A previous post discussed a fellow student's problem with the plus/minus grading system. I believe this is a huge issue and the Undergraduate Student Government is planning on working on this. If my memory serves me, the student body is owed a full report on the three (3) year trial-run of plus/minus grading by the end of the 2006-2007 academic school year. Dr. Crow, who will you be placing in charge of preparing this report?

As the Chair of the USG Senate University Affairs committee, I will be working on this issue during second semester. Please feel free to contact me, if you wish to get involved.

Dr. Crow:

I completely agree with Mr. Wright on the issue of bikes. I myself have had one bike stolen, and a friend of mine has lost three. While I agree parking is a larger, and much more complicated issue, I think some action taken on bike theft would resonate with ASU students and send a strong message supporting alternative means of getting to campus. At the very least, why not host a contest to come up with bike theft prevention solutions? This sounds like an ideal problem for the engineering or design colleges.