Restrictions maintain safety
COMMENTARY
Melissa Christensen

Parking complaints are as much a TCU tradition as wearing the purple and white. It seems the only way to satisfy the student body is to install 6,500 front row spaces by every building. But since the laws of physics guarantee that’s not going to happen any time soon, the solution students have arrived at is to park along the streets in the surrounding residential area.

Many students have realized there are those days when driving through parking lot after parking lot, only to find that they’re all full, compounds the anxiety of being late. The previous quick fix was to pull into a no-parking zone in the residential area behind campus. After all, if caught, the punishment was so slight, only $15, that the convenience was worth the fine.

Now, with a much larger fine looming, students will have to think twice about whether shaving five or ten minutes off their walk to class is really worth breaking the law. More than likely the $100 fine will keep the restricted spots empty, as they are intended to be, and residents will be assured that their neighborhood is accessible to emergency vehicles.

The fine increase was a direct result of the efforts of TCU’s residential neighbors. Their concerns leading to the increase are valid. As explained by Jamie Johnson, the Fort Worth police officer assigned to the TCU neighborhood, parked cars along the streets caused some passageways to be too narrow for emergency vehicles. Maneuvering around corners was impossible in some places because cars were parked too close to intersections.

The situation was so out of hand, Johnson said, that fire trucks took to driving around the neighborhood once or twice a day, just to make sure that, if necessary, they could find enough alternate routes to get where they needed to go. That’s not just mere inconvenience; that’s a risk to public safety.

TCU’s neighbors have worked hard in recent years to form community watch groups. Johnson said as a result of their efforts, violent crimes rarely occur in the TCU neighborhood, especially compared to other parts of Fort Worth. He also said the car burglaries that seemed epidemic the last year or so have subsided and are also becoming rare occurrences.

As daily visitors in this neighborhood, the least students can do is to show their gratitude to the people who have worked so hard to maintain a safe community. Respecting the parking restrictions so that residents can receive emergency care if needed is not only a simple courtesy but an obligation as well. The fine increase reinforces this obligation.

Students have heard it all before, but it still remains that the best way to find a parking space is to get to campus before everybody else. If you can’t rouse yourself from dreamland, don a pair of running shoes before heading out because you’re going to have to hike it to class.

Melissa Christensen is a junior news-editorial major from Grand Island, Neb.