With permit lots continuing to sell out yearly, students struggle to beat the rush to purchase a permit or find a parking spot off campus.
Similar to previous years, MRU’s permit lots have sold out. With the web driving online sales, the passes have sold faster than previous years.
Contrary to popular belief, students are spending less time in line and are using the internet as a major driver for their initial purchase.
“The line ups have actually shrunk over the past five years. [The staff] remember the lineups down the hallway and around the corner,” says Gerry McHugh, Mount Royal’s parking manager.
Another change in this year’s sales was the fact that students were opting to buy the full term fall/winter permit over the single semester pass.
The combination of these two significant changes caused some students like Mercy Maddox to struggle when it came to her parking options.Mercy Maddox smiles as she holds her winter 2018 permit pass. After all the fall passes sold out, Maddox is relieved to have purchased her pass. Like many other students this year, she purchased her Winter pass online. Photo by Aiesha Hinds.
“I have an employee passes right now, so luckily I have that otherwise I didn’t have a parking pass at all,” said Maddox.
For the fall term, Maddox had to use employee flex passes in order for her to park on campus. Employee flex passes are only sold to employees. They come in packs of 10 and the employees scratch and can select certain days they would like to use. There is a limit each month. The option of parking off campus was not a feasible option. Many communities surrounding Mount Royal have implemented restrictive parking and the otherwise “free parking” spots have turned into paid parking.
“[Students] can’t find a place to park, because none of the areas around here really offer it either,” Maddox said.
MRU’s parking office is currently looking to create new parking structure but is still in the very early stages.
ahinds@cjournal.ca
Editor: Tyler Ryan | tryan@cjournal.ca
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