2012 Ford Focus

2012 Ford Focus

College is one of those experiences that are hard to compare to any other experience in life. However, with great experience can also come great annoyance and for most college patrons parking is not only expensive, but also hard to find. Even worse is when you have paid $7.50 (or possibly more) and then have to stalk your fellow students like some great hunter in order to get a parking space while still trying to be on time for class.

It wasn’t that long ago, about three years now, when I was still at university and trying to park a 1-ton Chevrolet 4-door dually in a four-level parking garage in the middle of the morning class rush—downtown. In other words, a space not on the fourth level, where it was covered in ice, was about as likely as staying awake in class after a night of partying. So here are some tips for getting that good parking space and lowering your stress levels all at the same time.

  1. Leave early—yes, it seems like a “duh” statement, however, the majority of parking issues I faced in my time at school was do to the high probability that I was going to be late for class. You can try out different times of arrival; sometimes you will find that 10 minutes might make the difference between pre-class headaches and enough time to stop for coffee on the way.
  2. Scout New Lots—Most people park where they are familiar or where they believe it is closest to their classes. A perfect example was R lot where I went to school; the parking lot was right across from the classroom building most of the business classes were in, so in turn the lot was always packed. However, if you parked in the Garage across campus, you were likely to find a spot in a couple of minutes. Every campus has a “sweet spot” for parking that the masses don’t know about.
  3. Park In Time With Classes Release—One of the best techniques I learned was to time my arrival to the parking lot for when people were rushing out of class and to their cars. This works best with open lots that don’t have a gated entry, but can work for automated lots as long as a heap of other cars haven’t beaten you to it. If you get it right, you can swoop into a space that is freeing up instead of search row by row for a space when no one is leaving.
  4. Invest in the future—parking passes can sometimes be worth the upfront cost, especially if they only sell as many parking passes as there are spaces for a particular lot. If it guarantees you a spot, it is worth its weight in gold.

Just remember, extra time and planning will always start your class day off in the right direction. Be sure to come back for more exciting car news from green issues to the best cars for commuting to college. Of course, we also throw some fantasy cars in there for some good eye candy too.

 

Have college car related questions or news tips? Drop an email to JEMblogger at gmail dot com and we will try to address it in one of our up coming articles.