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COMMENT: Exploiting indebted student drivers?
Finding a parking space around Queen’s is a nightmare. Students who have saved and paid to learn the valuable skill to drive, and paid to insure and tax their cars, are being forced to abandon them in their driveways because it is simply impossible to find a space to park around Queen’s. This is an accepted grievance for student commuters who are getting up hours before lectures just to park. However, rumours of the introduction of paid parking around the city centre campus will not only frustrate local businesses but force indebted students to fork out even more to receive a university education.
BY SARAH WRIGHT
It is not unusual for this 1st year student to get up early, spend ninety minutes trying to find a space (when there are loads free in the staff car park), miss a lecture and then have to pay a £30 ticket from “over-zealous” traffic wardens, or give up and drive home. Is this what my £3,000+ a year is getting me from Queen’s?
The University of Ulster generously provides its students with access to a secure car park to encourage car sharing, and offers options to pay hourly with a 24 hour ticket for £3, or for 6 or 9 month permits which are £40 and £75 respectively, with various payment methods available. As an added bonus, if you are parking for less than 30 minutes, it’s free. Perfect for those times when you simply need to leave a library book back, pick up a module guide or hand in an assignment. Obviously, the University of Ulster recognises and, above all, respects its students need and desire to travel by car. Queen’s, however, does not. The only parking available to students is when the barrier at the library is lifted after 5pm and these spaces are limited.
The introduction of paid parking will undoubtedly exploit students who are already in vulnerable financial situations rather than working with student bodies to address the issue and seek an appropriate solution. Promoting and rewarding students for car sharing would be one viable option. If you are fed up with tutorial latecomers complaining about parking, have suffered problems with parking yourself and have an opinion on the introduction of paid parking around QUB, then please join the Facebook group – Students against paid parking.
To enable our voice to be heard by Queen’s University, I have started a petition and I urge all students to sign!
http://petition.co.uk/paid_parking_qub
Tags: Gown, newspaper, qub, Queen's, queen's university, Sarah Wright, student, The Gown
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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“COMMENT: Exploiting indebted student drivers?”
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Steve, I would love to know how you can afford to live on just your student loan. Do you eat, pay rent and bills? I find it hard to believe and would love to know how you do it.
Cars are expensive and so are driving lessons. Hence, I got a job when I was 17 and a car when I was 19. It’s simple math:
Minimum wage x 1000+ hours work = used car
In relation to other people arguing about carparks I think you’re being ridiculous. If Queen’s wanted to make more spaces available they could always make a small multi-story on the new library’s car park site. Something akin to the city hospital’s disabled parking one.
It would be expensive but there appears to be a market for guaranteed spaces. That suggests they could make the money back and eventually profit. But this is speculation and would obviously require proper market research.
However, the major flaw would be that the aesthetics of the new library would be ruined. I believe that this is important to QUB for PR purposes. After all, that’s the reason the library looks like a futuristic church isn’t it?
@John
I think you’ve just shown the kind of person you are. No respect for other peoples property. Great representation for a student attending Queens.
Did you have anything constructive to say about parking in and around QUB?
@Nicci
Yes I do pay rent, bills, etc. I have a student loan but that’s it. I wouldn’t say I’m living like a rockstar but I’m far from starving, can afford a wee drink once in a while!
Please sign the petition if you are against the introduction of paid parking at Queens and feel that the university has an obligation to provide secure parking for student drivers.
http://petition.co.uk/paid_parking_qub
This is the most middle-class debate I’ve ever come across. I’d rather people with cars made a bit of effort and check out the multiple other ways of getting to uni, rather than complain at the first hurdle. I’d rather my fees go towards decent and effective student resources rather than a major money-draining multi-story car park for the minority that drive to uni. If you can afford to run a car, you can afford public transport. Your legs arn’t there just to work the clutch.
The matter is rather simple in my mind, i pay £3000 per year to attend this world renowned university. I want a facility in which i can park my car securely.
I have to now drive into university because the public transport here is so unpredictable it has made me miss or be late for my very expensive education.
Furthermore, there are many occasions, despite getting up early, that i have had to park my car wherever i can find (double yellows or not) in order to make it to my lectures and tutorials. Then when i get there i spend the entire lecture hoping that i haven’t got a ticket. Is it fair for car drivers who do their best to earn their place at uni and then do their best to make it to their lectures to have the added worry of parking on their mind while trying to get their degree? And yes there are parking meters around the area, but you can’t always get a space.
Charlemane and all you students saying how we car commuters should all just jump on a bus are incredibly short sighted. Not all buses come regularly, not all buses are on time and not all buses pick up from every hole in the hedge. I have a good walk to my bus stop!
Oh and just for your benefit Danny Gillen, if you just open you’re little eyes you’ll see that most of the student population can’t afford a ‘new golf or whatever’ and are grateful for what they can afford. I drive a 1999 corsa, i’m grateful for it and i fund it myself. So stop being bitter about it. If you’re jealous of people with new golfs, go get a job and earn one!
And do these students who supposedly bought their own car pay for their own insurance too?
If so, nice one. However I think there are much more important matters to be dealt with than parking spaces. What about more university housing for those of us who decided to leave home for Uni?
While I find myself in a minority, public transport is simply not an option for me. I would have to get a train and a bus to my house; both of which last run at 11pm. I’m generally in the library until at least midnnight, but would have to leave to go home at 10pm or earlier with public transport. Plus, it is definitely more expensive for me to get public transport. If I was offered some sort of incentive to leave the car at home I might bite, but at the moment it is cheaper, more comfortable and more convenient for me to drive. I also use my phone for the whole journey both ways, which allows me to do a lot of work which I would otherwise have to do on a bus/train, irritating other passengers (and before someone flames, yes, my car does have Bluetooth). As long as Translink continue to offer an overpriced, under-performing service, they’ll not get a penny from me.
And, for all those talking about the £80 a year parking that might be possible, think again. Just check the following page for how much QUB rip off their own staff for parking:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/EstatesDepartment/ServicesDivision/CarParking/CurrentCarParkingTariffs/
£240 a year. And there’s a waiting list.
” Lisa says:
March 9, 2010 at 8:11 pm
I have to agree with Sarah, there is a certain safety and security with having a car. If i take the bus into queens that means i have to walk back into the city centre to get the bus back, and at night this is not always the safest option. ”
Is this due to the roaving gangs of lunatics that roam the streets between University Road and Great Victoria Street?
Last time I checked Belfast didn’t feature on the list of “Cities most likely to be kidnapped in”.
You’re in a modern Western European city with street lights and police. At any time when busses are running there is a constant stream of people going up and down that road.
There is also if you notice a metro bus service that picks up… wait for it… OUTSIDE THE STUDENTS UNION WHICH IS OPEN UNTIL AT LEAST 1 AM and then DROPS YOU OUTSIDE THE BUS STATION.
Actually “unknownmale” I would like to point out to you that ‘Rugby Road’ has the highest reported rapes in all of Northern Ireland, and this is right behind Queens so it is not the safest place. There are other streets near Queens with the most reported stabs in Belfast, so again, not safe.
I think you should check your facts before you go commenting on a topic you no nothing about.
Hold on a second, Sarah has a valid point. As someone who travels from the West Belfast every day, a car is quicker and cheaper.
Have any of you tried to get a bus during school hours? At peak times?
Catch a grip, Queens gets paid a fortune by us and for what?
To be fleeced on a daily basis!!!!!
I am a student who had to buy my own car to get to class, because Queen’s placed me in Enniskillen, Belfast, Dundonald, Antrim, Larne, Magharafelt and Ballymena.
For students doing my course, we are expected to be in class from 8.30-5 everyday- this is subject to the person teaching you on a week to week basis.
I have used translink for my transport prior to this, and i spent my summer exploring the public transport systems of western and eastern europe.
Based on my experience, translink is awful. well at least the ones serving north belfast are. Go down to city hall anyday during the week and see the inequality of the buses supplied to the different areas of belfast. If you stand awating the buses that serve route 1, you will wait for at least an hour and see at least 6 4a’s arrive in that time. This is why i choose to drive, and get screwed everytime i do, but i’m far happier to drive than be treated worse than cattle on a translink bus.
Also- all the calculations considered, it is still cheaper to drive than to use translink, just as long as you arrive early and know where to park.