The initial surplus of parking spaces present in early September has disappeared. West Campus' parking capacity is 1195 vehicles, and only six remain unsold, said Chuck Landis, manager of Parking Services.
"Honestly, I feel right now there is not a parking problem on campus," Landis said.
He cites that during his rounds of the parking lots last Thursday morning he saw three empty spaces in Ocean, two in Guam and 50 or 60 in the IM lot.
Because Landis identifies no problems in the current parking situation, he said Parking Services has no plans to change the current parking structure.
Although Landis identifies no problems with campus parking, engineering sophomore Brent Reid, a student with a "W" parking permit, said he has considerable difficulties finding desirable parking. The only way he can get a parking space near campus is "by following somebody closely who is leaving."
As an improvement to the current system, Reid suggested more off-campus parking combined with a shuttle service to campus-an idea that would not "force people to park illegally to get close," he said.
Trinity sophomore Ryanne Fulton-who lives in Trent but parks her car on west after four o'clock-said parking is not a problem. Although she can usually find a space near West Campus, Fulton said she can not "always [procure] a location close to where I need to be going."
Trinity junior Amir Rashid-Farokhi, Duke Student Government's vice president for facilities and athletics, said that although parking in the IM lot may be a hassle, there are many parking places available in lots on Wannamaker Drive.
The number of cares on campus typically increases second semester because of the influx of students returning from study abroad, and because many students bring cars only for the second semester, Landis said. Rashid-Farokhi said that if the undergraduate-reserved "W" lots are "consistently full, parking Services will expand the "W" permit to include the Graveyard"-a lot located on Wannamaker Drive behind Wallace Wade Stadium.
Landis said that although "generally in the parking industry a little bit of oversell isn't necessarily a bad thing," he says he tries "to keep residential lots closely monitored."
Joe Pietrantoni, associate vice president of auxiliary services, said that a long term plan for parking will be presented in a report to be released in December or January. To this date, Auxiliary Services has only discussed ideas.
Both Landis and Rashid-Farokhi say the new financial aid car policy has not impacted parking availability. The policy allows students to bring cars more than seven years old or valued at less than $3,000 without affecting their financial aid packages.
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