UNCG Parking Hell.

This must be the "discounted" parking rate?

So I went to my SOAR session the other day. SOAR which is an acronym for pain in the tuchas, is a mandatory whole day seminar for new students attending UNCG. GTCC had one as well, though you could take it online. UNCG would likely be wise to consider a similar option. While I can't deny it's helpful to some people, I spent the good part of Thursday doing ice-breakers, and pretending to be excited with a new sense of collegiate school spirit (and I am) while being threatened not to copy and paste from Google, or else I'll arrive in the assistant Dean's Office. The only thing soaring that day was my sore rear. (I was also sick) In fact the only information I received, that I wasn't aware of, was the cost of parking. $450 a year parking. That's right.

Now I like the concept. Several years ago, UNCG was deciding to build more parking facilities or not, and decided to encourage alternative forms of transportation. (walking, biking, etc.) I applaud them for doing so. The problem, is, I live just beyond the reach of the public bus system, and this semester I must pick up my children within thirty minutes of getting out of my last class. This does not provide me a lot of options with parking off campus, and biking in, or any other non-car options.Yet I can't really argue with their policy. It's what I'd love to see across the US, and given, if I didn't have kids, I'd love to park remotely and walk. The problem is, as my conservative friends might argue, "This is America dammit!", and the infrastructure doesn't facilitate well, when institutions such as UNCG attempt a hybrid system. (Especially in car-centric NC.) This leaves me holding the bill for a cringeful, $450 parking bill to put my 50 MPG Metro in the parking deck. (Could I just chain it to the bike rack? It's small enough.)

What do we say? MONORAIL!

I remember back in the 90's, I had a drama teacher from UNCG performing her student teaching, and she advised us, high-schoolers at the time, that parking was horrific then. She said she never paid for the permit. Just parked illegally and paid the tickets. She said it always came out cheaper. Considering, it's a decade and half later, I assume this loophole, in the system, has been filled. Indeed, at SOAR, we were threatened to have our cars "booted" if we should try. Another threat.

I'm now so scared to go to school, I think I might vomit.

Ideally I think UNCG needs a monorail. A giant freaking monorail to some giant parking complex. Yes, a subway, a metro, now that's forward thinking. It should have been done ten years ago. Greensboro should have helped. It still involves walking, and riding public transportation, but it's timely, convenient, and it would solve the problems, such as myself might have. I doubt I'm alone. That said, I'll keep my stiff upper lip, keep calm, and carry on. I've timed my journey by stopwatch, and I can make it to my car in 6 minutes, sweating and huffing. If I can just make it to the kids school on time, maybe I can thwart their $15 a day late charge on picking up the kids.

Geesh, school is expensive.

So if you see me on campus after 1:50, running like a mad woman to my car. Please don't stop and say hello. I'm on a mission.