Parking At SFU Surrey: A Call For Reform

Three hour parking - free, until the time runs out. With extensive lectures and laboratories chained in succession, this is not sufficient for any SFU student.

Like Alex Yip, I believe that this should be rectified before it reaches an extreme. However, I dis-agree that pay parking further infuriates SFU students.

 While the price is relatively high and accumulates over time, I myself would be willing to pay $2 an hour for parking - that is, if I couldn't go ten minutes out of my way to find parking for a whole 12 hours at $5; That's a whole $19 savings, right there.

 That is not the issue, I believe - the problem lies within the limited capacity of this parking; during mall hours, there is oftentimes not a single spot to be found in these parking lots; no doubtedly as a result of their convenience placement. However, next to this, there is a whole five floors of parking for three hours minimum. Plently of space, due to it's...inconvenience, shall we say.

 If that whole lot was subjected to pay parking, with ImPark's rate [That being $5 for a full twelve hours.], I believe it would better suit SFU students.

 But that's just one opinion. I had surveyed a few SFU students about this idea, and a great majority agreed that if we could increase our parking lot time, even for a price, it would be worth it. Although I only have two interviews up on NowPublic as of now, I had a few who wished not to be publicized.

 That's not to say that it was unanimous - for example, one of my fellow students suggested that the parking be staggered. They suggested that while some of it was alloted for time-allocated payment of parking, a few floors should be dedicated to a free maximum parking rate. After hearing that, I realized that there was still value to free limited parking zones; while at school at night, I do not plan on staying a rough twelve hours overnight, solely for the purpose of maximizing the value of my parking time stamp.

 That said, there is still an overwhelming demand for allocation of larger parking zones dedicated to lengthy stays at the university, so it would be foolish for Surrey Central to not capitalize on such a developed market.  Thus, I believe it is time for a reform.