Letter to the Editor: Duke should reexamine parking

Duke's parking problems extend much further than the exorbitant price of tickets. Transportation Services has sold more permits for at least some of the zoned parking areas than there are spaces available.

Many of us who purchased expensive permits at the beginning of the year discovered within the first week of classes that unless we arrive on campus before 8:30 a.m. or after 3 p.m., our chances of finding a legal parking space are minimal.

Surely some of the responsibility for the campus parking problem falls at the feet of Transportation Services for overselling permits, providing less efficient driving alternatives than they seem to believe they have done and doing little to help drivers find a legal campus parking space within a reasonable amount of time.

I suggest, at a bare minimum, that regularly updated signs be posted at the entrances to campus indicating which lots are most likely to have available spaces; that we get rid of the assumption that parking off East Campus will always be available (I've been ticketed by the City of Durham by overstaying my welcome on some of those side streets); and, perhaps most importantly, that Transportation Services acknowledge how difficult the situation is for students by lowering their ticket rates and indicating a desire to make the system work better next year.