For most students, the longest journey to a Terrapins football game is the walk from the tailgate to Byrd Stadium. Unfortunately, tens of thousands of other attendees have to survive local College Park traffic, navigate the sprawling labyrinth of reserved parking lots and pay an exorbitant fee to watch our Terps.
This university’s parking experience — and as a commuter, I assure you I am familiar with it — is poor at best, both for football games and weekdays. However, the Department of Transportation Services has seen fit to further complicate the problem.
This year, gameday parking fees have increased from $15 to $17, something that will lead to an unprecedented disaster at a likely sold-out game such as Ohio State. At first glance, the collective reaction to this statement is probably as follows: Why would anyone even write a column about a $2 increase in parking fees?
Most of the past traffic problems have resulted from the campus parking attendants and traffic police closing lots early or creating terrible holdups with truly horrid traffic guidance. Too many lots dump fans into the same exit, which turns University Boulevard into a nightmare. Route 1 and other local roads become just as bad.
Of course, arriving to the game is no walk in the park. Whatever advantage this university gains from fans arriving during the course of several hours is lost to ineptitude and paying parking fees. Route 1 backs up onto Interstate 495 hours before kickoff and traffic extends all the way to the intersection of Adelphi Road and Route 212.
Having explained the extent of the problem and aired my grievances, I return to my initial concern — the parking fee increase. Forgetting DOTS’ everlasting obsession with revenue, the $2 increase serves to make life difficult for the parking attendants. It’s much easier to give change for $15 than it is for $17. Almost no one has exactly $17, which means making change for a $20 bill, a slightly more difficult process.
Furthermore, DOTS now has every vehicle that parks display the receipt in the front of the vehicle — something that is absurdly redundant, considering the parking pass is already displayed as well as the sealed-off parking lots.
When my family went to the game on Saturday, it took several minutes for the four or five cars in front of us to get past the attendant, simply because of the difficulty of making change and the absurdity of printing a receipt.
Even paying exact change, it took nearly a minute for the attendant to count the bills, check the parking pass and give us a receipt. When the Ohio State game rolls around and the campus is packed, imagine the traffic jams in and around the campus.
While I cannot solve the traffic flow problem in a column, I will be arrogant enough to give DOTS a little advice. It should swallow its pride and either charge $15, charge $20 or encourage online prepaid parking that would require a simple scan. They must remove the receipt process; it merely wastes time.
Unfortunately, my complaints will most likely fall upon deaf ears. We’re students, so it’s only families and commuters who are affected. And the day I dissuade DOTS from giving up $2 per car is the day DOTS doesn’t give a parking ticket to a student.
Matt Dragonette is a junior government and politics major. He can be reachedat mdragonettedbk@gmail.com.
