Finding a parking spot in the Vanier parking lot of St. Thomas University is like finding the golden ticket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: there aren’t very many of them and getting your hands on one often comes down to dumb luck.
To ensure they get a spot in STU’s most desirable parking lot, students have begun to park in the entrance, or driveway, of the lot and wait until another vehicle leaves and a spot opens up. This often forms a wait line of multiple cars that end up blocking off parts of the main road.
“I think it’s extremely dangerous, especially if there are several cars doing it,” said second-year STU student Kayla MacKinnon. “Like, today I saw three cars in a row doing it and there was a Jeep literally out in the road and I had to swerve around him.”
MacKinnon says she’s seen students wait more than 10 minutes to get a parking spot.
“If people are driving up the road they could potentially hit the cars waiting in line if they’re not paying attention,” she said.
Meghan Dawson, a third-year STU student, agrees that getting in the way of traffic is dangerous and shouldn’t be tolerated. However, she also says waiting for a parking spot is simply a good parking strategy.
“It’s my third year at STU so I know the Vanier parking lot schedule pretty well,” said Dawson. “So I wait at the entrance to Vanier for a spot – but I’m smart about it. I’ve never had a problem getting a spot and I’ve never gotten in someone’s way.
She understands it can be inconvenient to walk all the way from NBCC, but students should never block traffic with their cars.
Knowing your car’s spatial limits can be the difference between waiting in line and having your bumper out in the road.
“There’s been times when I knew that if I squeezed my car into that Vanier line I’d be in traffic, so instead I went and got frozen yogurt and when I came back there was no line and open spaces. Win, win for me,” said Dawson.
MacKinnon says that even though she sees students waiting in the Vanier parking lot driveway on a daily basis, she doesn’t know if any consequences have been handed out by campus security.
“Campus security should send out a mass email like they have with other safety issues,” said MacKinnon. “I also think campus security should monitor this more closely.”
Jeffrey Carleton, director of communications at STU, says that campus security deals with students who park in the Vanier driveway on a daily basis.
“The campus police will speak to people who are stopped there and ask them to move along; they do it over and over again. There’s been examples of where students would then return to the same line up,” Carleton said.
City police were also contacted in the past when students refused to move their vehicles.
In the event of an emergency on campus, cars parked in the driveway could become a serious safety issue.
“Having cars parked illegally in a driving lane and a fire lane waiting for a more convenient parking spot is a concern for us,” said Carleton. “If there’s an incident, that’s a lane that a fire truck or an ambulance would use.”
Waiting for a parking spot in the Vanier driving/fire lane is not only against campus parking regulations, but also against provincial traffic laws.
“We can and will use the campus code of conduct for the worst offenders because it is a ticket-able offence, it is a safety issue and it’s something that the campus police try to deal with everyday,” he said.
Carleton says it could be an entitlement or cultural issue that causes students to illegally wait for the most convenient parking spot.
“It’s perplexing why you’ll see people wait five – ten minutes for one space that will only save them two or three minutes of walking.”
