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Parking In Ucd

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135

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    #62
    Tayto2000
    Registered Users Posts: 597 ✭✭✭Tayto2000


    ?

    Do you mean that they think you're parking and riding?

    Dublin's transport system needs a lot of work, but one of the problems is the fact that the city is completely choked with cars. It's a catch 22 situation, people won't use public transport because it's crap, one of the reasons it's crap is because people won't get out of their cars... Buses are fine in the lanes, but just get stuck wherever they have to join the normal traffic, no-one wants to cycle in the maelstrom of cars and trucks.

    Maybe the traffic plan coming out will help... Anyone seen the plans for the city centre lately? No more cars after the works are finished...


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    #63
    dhaddock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 176 ✭✭dhaddock


    I think he meant they are asking where he is parked so they can take his space. I'm asked it regularly. I feel bad when i am just getting something out of my car and a car has followed me :D


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    #64
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,997 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    dhaddock wrote: »
    I think he meant they are asking where he is parked so they can take his space. I'm asked it regularly. I feel bad when i am just getting something out of my car and a car has followed me :D
    Yep - should have made that clearer. They ask "are you leaving?" "Yes, but..." :o

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #65
    Tayto2000
    Registered Users Posts: 597 ✭✭✭Tayto2000


    Ah. I thought that since you said "I walk to and from UCD", you were crossing the car park on foot and getting stopped by suspicious drivers who thought you might be parking and riding ;) So you are driving then?


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    #66
    scop
    Closed Accounts Posts: 687 ✭✭✭scop


    I'm just wondering how much it costs to run a car a month (insurance, petrol etc.). People says its the best option to get into college? As far as I can tell it would be easier to do what most of us do and rent near the college and walk/cycle/bus it? I'm just interested in the reasons behind the car-buzz.


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    #67
    Breezer
    Registered Users Posts: 3,228 ✭✭✭Breezer


    betafrog wrote: »
    Actually, a lot of private estates are resident only parking as the roads are owned by the association ruinning the estate, to help curb this sort of thing. It gets very annoying when you have to drive at 2 mph to make out of your estate to make sure you can make it past all the parked cars without hitting them.
    The ones I'm talking about aren't, they're maintained by the County Council. Private estates usually have signs up saying "Private Parking - Residents Only" or some such, and of course these should be respected.


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    #68
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,997 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Tayto2000 wrote: »
    Ah. I thought that since you said "I walk to and from UCD", you were crossing the car park on foot and getting stopped by suspicious drivers who thought you might be parking and riding ;) So you are driving then?
    No, you were right first time, so where did you get the idea I was driving? Drivers are asking where I'm parked, because they see me crossing a car park, but that's their assumption. :cool:

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #69
    Red Alert
    Hosted Moderators Posts: 7,486 ✭✭✭Red Alert


    Apparently there's a 200 Euro levy on employers who provide employee parking spaces. I wonder how will this affect UCD given that parking's a free-for-all and employees as well as students and the general public use them?


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    #70
    Tayto2000
    Registered Users Posts: 597 ✭✭✭Tayto2000


    Well, you said 'yes' when dhaddock said that they were asking you where you were parked so they could take your space... I got a little confused since it was contradicting your first post...


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    #71
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,997 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Tayto2000 wrote: »
    Well, you said 'yes' when dhaddock said that they were asking you where you were parked so they could take your space... I got a little confused since it was contradicting your first post...
    The "yes" meant "yes, they were asking me where I was parked", since that was I what was being asked here on the forum. Oh, man... :pac:

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #72
    Breezer
    Registered Users Posts: 3,228 ✭✭✭Breezer


    Red Alert wrote: »
    Apparently there's a 200 Euro levy on employers who provide employee parking spaces. I wonder how will this affect UCD given that parking's a free-for-all and employees as well as students and the general public use them?
    I'm curious about this too. But if employers give employees company bikes up to €1000 in value, they can do so as a tax-exempt benefit in kind. I'm going to give Hughie a call tomorrow and see if he'll sort me out :pac:
    scop wrote:
    I'm just wondering how much it costs to run a car a month (insurance, petrol etc.). People says its the best option to get into college? As far as I can tell it would be easier to do what most of us do and rent near the college and walk/cycle/bus it? I'm just interested in the reasons behind the car-buzz.
    As of midnight tonight, 8c a litre more than it used to, plus 4% on motor tax, and that's before John Gormley unleashes his carbon tax from next year. On the plus side, the Metro and the Dart interconnector are still happening, so we might eventually be able to get around the place quickly without cars. *Takes off political hat, tips it to mods, and leaves it off*


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    #73
    ucdperson
    Registered Users Posts: 231 ✭✭ucdperson


    Apparently there's a 200 Euro levy on employers who provide employee parking spaces.

    I imagine some sort of parking charge for everyone will result, something like €250 a year or 50c an hour during term would work. Apart from the levy this would bring in several million, much needed in these times and it probably reduce car volumes somewhat so that you could get parked.


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    #74
    redcar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 154 ✭✭redcar


    Budget wrote:
    A flat rate levy of €200 per annum will be charged on employees whose employer provides them with car parking facilities. The levy will be confined to employer provided car parking facilities situated in the main urban centres.
    Students aren't employees so that would mean they couldn't charge us. Plus I don't think UCD would fall in a major urban centre. I think, well my interpretation is,that it is targeting city centres.


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    #75
    ardmacha
    Registered Users Posts: 7,476 ✭✭✭ardmacha


    Students aren't employees so that would mean they couldn't charge us

    The government levy wouldn't apply, but charging for parking is a reasonable way of getting more money when there isn't enough as carparks cost money and students with cars are generally better off than other students.


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    #76
    redcar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 154 ✭✭redcar


    ardmacha wrote: »
    The government levy wouldn't apply, but charging for parking is a reasonable way of getting more money when there isn't enough as carparks cost money and students with cars are generally better off than other students.
    Yea sorry thats what I meant. I wish they would charge more places, might stop the people who live two minutes up the road from driving or that old woman who is always there in the last parking space going off for a walk with her dogs.


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    #77
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Drove around for over an hour yesterday looking for parking.

    Good thing I got petrol beforehand...


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    #78
    Ernie Ball
    Closed Accounts Posts: 881 ✭✭✭Ernie Ball


    ardmacha wrote: »
    The government levy wouldn't apply, but charging for parking is a reasonable way of getting more money when there isn't enough as carparks cost money and students with cars are generally better off than other students.

    Excellent idea. You'd think the do-nothing UCD administration would've figured that one out by now.

    Unfortunately, their initial plan to 'solve' the parking problem was typical of the way they 'solve' every problem, invented or, as in this case, real. They wanted to charge everyone--staff and students alike--50 cents per hour. And they wanted to bring in a company to set up a very elaborate electronic tag system with electronic gates to keep track of how long people stay and to charge them accordingly.

    The staff unions of course rejected this plan out of hand as a change in their working conditions. Never mind that it establishes an incentive for staff and students to spend as little time on campus as possible, which is contrary to the very ethos of a university.

    That was 2 years ago. What have they done since? Have they even proposed a single solution since? No, they have not. Result: not only students but also staff cannot reliably find places to park. This means lectures and tutorials missed or delayed or, in some cases, cancelled while the lecturer is out looking for parking.

    Is this any way to run a university? All the rhetoric about 'excellence' is shown to be as empty as can be by the cavalier attitude of the administration to something so basic to the functioning of a university. Other universities worldwide have solved this problem: it's not rocket science. But the brainiacs in the Admin building can't seem to put in place even the most basic solutions (for example: free permits for all UCD staff and students, which would at least eliminate the park&ride crowd).


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    #79
    ucdperson
    Registered Users Posts: 231 ✭✭ucdperson


    Parking is in crisis 4 days a week, 24 weeks a year for maybe 7 hours a day. So charge 50c an hour for these times alone with a €250 annual pass. No need for fancy systems, pay and display and a sticker would do.


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    #80
    DaveyGem
    Closed Accounts Posts: 234 ✭✭DaveyGem


    ucdperson wrote: »
    Parking is in crisis 4 days a week, 24 weeks a year for maybe 7 hours a day. So charge 50c an hour for these times alone with a €250 annual pass. No need for fancy systems, pay and display and a sticker would do.

    You are proposing a €250 fee on top of the €1650 (roughly 1500 for reg and 150 for Student Centre) that will come in from next september for reg, for those of us who wish to drive to college? Why?

    Just on the basis that it could solve the parking problem in UCD by discouraging students who live nearby to walk? Alot of the students who live nearby could easily afford such a fee and thus continue to drive to college.

    For christ sake 1650 (ish) is a lot to pay as it stands, and with the dark cloud of tuition fees poised to hit an introduction of a parking fee (however small) would be ridiculous. For example if a fee was introduced and then this time next year tuition fees come in, do you think the powers that be would do away with the new parking fee? €250X7,000 is a lot of cash and i don't believe the current administration would want to give that up considering it costs them very little to maintain the outstanding parking facilities.


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    #81
    ucdperson
    Registered Users Posts: 231 ✭✭ucdperson


    Some of the money can be used to pave the carpark into a decent condition.
    I tried it last year... Car loan was 130 a month, insurance 140 a month, and then petrol worked out at about 80 a week.

    As for the charges, people with cars are hardly indigent. The students who will find these fees increases a burden don't have cars.


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    #82
    DaveyGem
    Closed Accounts Posts: 234 ✭✭DaveyGem


    ucdperson wrote: »
    Some of the money can be used to pave the carpark into a decent condition.



    As for the charges, people with cars are hardly indigent. The students who will find these fees increases a burden don't have cars.


    I agree to a certain degree, that the mini/beetle crowd will have no problem paying any fee the university decides to throw at them.

    But the problem is you have tarred a lot of students with the same brush. For that reason I would have to beg to differ.

    Not everyone who drives to college is loaded. Also insurance is neccasary and the premium charged for insurance particularly for young people can be quite high, not to mention road tax, a lot of students will struggle to pay these two let a alone a parking fee.

    With regards to the car park dubbed "The Jungle" by many, the college is projected to be 15 mil in debt this year, surely another few grand for a bit of tarmac wouldn't make a huge difference, as bad paractice as this may seem, they had no problem bringing in a shedload of new computers to replace the ones that were working fine, they could at least fill the cavernous potholes.


    Also 80 bones a week for petrol! Try not driving everywere in second gear! haha


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    #83
    mloc
    Registered Users Posts: 2,567 ✭✭✭mloc


    Gated entry with a standard charge of 2 euro a day with a student card, free for staff and an hourly charge for visitors would make the most sense.

    The charges would fund the implementation of the system and provide an incentive for those living closer to use alternate means of transport.


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    #84
    DaveyGem
    Closed Accounts Posts: 234 ✭✭DaveyGem


    mloc wrote: »
    Gated entry with a standard charge of 2 euro a day with a student card, free for staff and an hourly charge for visitors would make the most sense.

    The charges would fund the implementation of the system and provide an incentive for those living closer to use alternate means of transport.


    That is not a bad idea, but have you ever tried coming in Clonskeagh at 9 or 10 in the morning, it is backed right up, add in a toll booth and traffic delays could be massive...and not just for the students the people who use that road would be inconvieneced


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    #85
    Ernie Ball
    Closed Accounts Posts: 881 ✭✭✭Ernie Ball


    You'd think no university anywhere in the world had ever faced such a problem the way people talk about it.

    The problem at UCD is increasing student demand for parking, plain and simple. Staff numbers have remained relatively constant. What has changed in the last 10 years is: 1) abolition of fees so that some of those savings were used to buy students cars; 2) increased wealth among UCD students in general (yes, I know: not everyone is wealthy).

    For staff, any unfavorable and non-negotiated change in parking (for example, charging staff by the hour or by the year) is a change in working and pay conditions and will have to be negotiated with the unions. But in light of the importance of academic staff being able to find places (without them, no teaching can happen), it ought to be possible to reserve a certain number of spaces in each lot for staff, as they do at many universities including NUI Galway.

    For students, however, parking is a privilege not a right. It is not reasonable to expect it to be free for everyone and anyone who wants a space. Spaces will have to be rationed. Given that student demand is the problem and given that an increase in the number of spaces is not on the cards, there are basically two solutions. You can either make the privilege of parking dependent on (geographical) need or you can make it depend on ability to pay. You could also do some sort of combination.

    UCD could, for example, distribute free parking permits only to those who can prove they live sufficiently far from campus (or, in Dublin, sufficiently far from reliable bus routes) and make everyone else pay. It wouldn't be too hard to plot out on a map which areas are sufficiently well serviced by Dublin Bus and which aren't and to allocate free permits only to those who live in those that aren't well serviced. That solution would require the hiring of a few bureaucrats but if it were also accompanied by paid permits for those not meeting the conditions, it might well pay for itself.

    The other alternative is less fair but easier and cheaper to administer: make all student parking payable. This could be accompanied by waivers of the payment for those who are unable to pay.

    But none of this is rocket science. The problem is quite obviously caused by large numbers of students--many of them well-to-do--from nearby suburban Dublin who find taking the car more convenient than taking the bus or the bicycle. They are the first who should be denied parking.


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    #86
    mloc
    Registered Users Posts: 2,567 ✭✭✭mloc


    DaveyGem wrote: »
    That is not a bad idea, but have you ever tried coming in Clonskeagh at 9 or 10 in the morning, it is backed right up, add in a toll booth and traffic delays could be massive...and not just for the students the people who use that road would be inconvieneced

    A 5-10 second bottleneck per car wouldn't impact too much; traffic moves slow enough at that hour anyway. Additionally, if it goes to plan there should be a substantial reduction in traffic coming in to UCD.


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    #87
    mac123
    Registered Users Posts: 709 ✭✭✭mac123


    How about every student/member of staff that produces a driving licence and college id and perhaps a small fee receives a sticker for their car and any car that parks on campus without this sticker gets clamped? At least that would stop ppl from parking on campus and catching that bus into town!


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    #88
    graduate
    Registered Users Posts: 335 ✭✭graduate


    How about every student/member of staff that produces a driving licence and college id

    A full driving licence.

    They used have stickers, but discontinued them. Who knows why.


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    #89
    mloc
    Registered Users Posts: 2,567 ✭✭✭mloc


    graduate wrote: »
    They used have stickers, but discontinued them. Who knows why.

    They did actually, they should bring that back. Full drivers licence and student card plus fee should get you one, staff free, otherwise pay and display. Make the sticker €200-500 a year. Done.

    That would cut out most of the park and ride'rs and those who don't really need to drive to college.


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    #90
    Breezer
    Registered Users Posts: 3,228 ✭✭✭Breezer


    mloc wrote: »
    They did actually, they should bring that back. Full drivers licence and student card plus fee should get you one, staff free, otherwise pay and display. Make the sticker €200-500 a year. Done.

    That would cut out most of the park and ride'rs and those who don't really need to drive to college.
    The problem with this, which has been brought up in similar threads, is that by not charging staff for something others have to pay for, UCD would be giving them a benefit in kind, which would be taxable, and the staff unions will oppose it.


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    #91
    DirkVoodoo
    Registered Users Posts: 11,504 ✭✭✭✭DirkVoodoo


    I still have my sticker on the car for some bizzare reason.

    They were not a parking permit. They merely recorded your details and in the event you left lights on, door unlocked or something else befell your car, they could contact you during the day.


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