New parking plan takes effect

With continued parking problems plaguing the Liberty University campus, officials have required commuter students and some Campus East and Hill residents to re-register their cars. New decals have been made available to these students, Chief of Police Col. Richard D. Hinkley said.

Hinkley said the reason is because the lots and the numbers of allowed vehicles per lot are different this semester due to parking issues and construction. Red and purple permits must be replaced with Zone 1 or Zone 2 permits.

According to the Vice President of Financial Research and Analysis Richard Martin, the biggest issue is how to deal with the loss of about 600 parking places because of the construction of the library and baseball field projects. Unfortunately, there are a lot of components and there is not an easy answer.

One major change was moving some residential students to the Wingate parking lot in order for commuters to have more parking places on campus.

“Monday the parking was fine. Tuesday was awful. I got to campus 40 minutes early and could not find a spot anywhere. Even the pit on South Campus was almost full,” junior Will Green said.

However, according to Martin, the biggest problem Tuesday was not a lack of parking places, but almost 400 commuter students had parked in the Zone 1 with expired decals. These commuters had not gotten the new decals, which would have required the vehicles to be parked in Zone 2, where 900 places were available. The situation began to improve on Wednesday when towing was enforced for expired decals.

Zone 1 allows vehicles to park in Speakman, Reber-Thomas and Reber-Thomas Drive. Zone 2 parking allows vehicles to park by Green Hall, Bailey, Doc’s Diner and East Intramural Field. Pavilion parking at Green Hall is now available with 200 spots.

Martin also had several recommendations that could help with guaranteeing students a place.

The first is to park-and-ride. Even if a student does not live at Cornerstone, he or she can still park and get a ride to Liberty. Cornerstone and Walden Pond bus routes have increased.

Another option is to carpool. Commuters can search or offer a carpool on the transit website. DeMoss Hall is reserved for carpool, handicap and visitors.

Zone 2 parking also has the possibility for parking at the East Intramural Field if a student does not have a problem with driving on gravel.

Hinkley said that it is too early to tell how the changes are holding up, but he expects to see commuters have an easier time trying to find parking and that there should be a higher use of carpools and buses.