{"id":18149,"date":"2019-09-11T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=18149"},"modified":"2019-09-12T09:03:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T16:03:38","slug":"parking-pressures-camosun-has-built-a-new-parking-lot-at-interurban-but-is-it-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/09\/11\/parking-pressures-camosun-has-built-a-new-parking-lot-at-interurban-but-is-it-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Parking pressures: Camosun has built a new parking lot at Interurban, but is it enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Camosun opening the doors to the new Alex & Jo Campbell Centre for Health and Wellness at the Interurban campus this month, there is excitement brewing for everyone. The building has a sleek design and room for more intensive and specialized classrooms and, of course, a lot of students. This means that Interurban, which has long been the source of parking concerns for students, is going to need more parking.<\/p>\n

When the designs for the new building were first created in 2017, the plans included a new parking lot with, according to the original website, 195 parking spaces. The end number is actually 233 (plus two accessibility stalls and one elder stall), a welcome increase. (The total number of parking spaces at Interurban before the new parking lot was 1149, not including short-term, PISE, loading spaces, motorcycle, or elder spaces; that number is now 1384.) Parking is always a problem at Interurban, so the additional spaces should be a cause for celebration. However, parking is parking, and with new students attending classes at this new building, traffic is going to get even more congested than it has been in previous years.<\/p>\n

But Camosun can only do so much. Saanich council has a say in how many parking spaces the college can put in. But good news for students: the college managed to work with Saanich to get more parking spots than initially proposed. <\/b>Camosun manager of transportation and parking Maria Bremner says that the college feels the new parking spaces will be enough to accommodate students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you come up with an estimate, it\u2019s an estimate based on existing travel habits and patterns,\u201d says Bremner. \u201cWe do feel it will be adequate, but, that said, the nuances of people\u2019s transportation decisions within the program area that\u2019s migrating to Interurban, diving into that as sort of a demographic, it remains to be seen. We know that at any given time on campus, there will be about 600 new people, students and staff.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bremner knows that driving isn\u2019t the only means of transportation, saying that a \u201csignificant majority\u201d of Camosun students take transit and other ways to get to campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yes, overall, we feel optimistic and reasonably confident that it\u2019s going to be adequate, although there will definitely be, without a doubt, parking pressures,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is existing parking pressures before the new building came online, and we don\u2019t anticipate seeing a significant reduction in parking demand this school year.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interurban has always been a challenge to deal with. There\u2019s its location, and there\u2019s its limited parking spaces, which are always an issue when students are struggling for a spot. However, the college has added not only more spots, but also more variety, with one elder stall, two accessibility zones, six electric vehicle charging stations, and 10 carpool stalls. Along with 42 staff spaces and 174 student spaces, the parking lot\u2014located behind the new building\u2014is, no doubt, massive.<\/p>\n

But this is a parking lot made for a new building, which means an influx of students for the new year. Do the numbers balance out?<\/p>\n

Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive Fillette Umulisa thinks that the additional space won\u2019t provide enough room for the students that are already there, never mind accomodating all the students moving from Lansdowne to Interurban to go to the new building.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Illustration by Tiegan Suddaby\/Nexus<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think pretty much everybody knows this, but Interurban has had parking challenges before, when the building was built,\u201d says Umulisa. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think the 200 spots that we\u2019re adding as part of the construction will meet the needs of the staff, faculty, and students who have been going to Interurban.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interurban faces not just parking issues, but also transportation issues in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterurban is in a challenging zone from a transportation perspective,\u201d says Bremner. \u201cUnlike Lansdowne campus, which benefits from being in the shadow of the Royal Jubilee Hospital, UVic, and a bigger urban area, Interurban is a little bit more isolated. As a consequence, we don\u2019t have as much transit service out to that campus, and it\u2019s a further distance to reasonably walk or cycle. In a sort of transportation planning perspective, your ideal cycle commute\u2026 is generally around five kilometres, and Interurban campus ranges between seven to ten kilometres for a lot of people, and if you\u2019re on the West Shore, obviously more.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Umulisa says that it\u2019s an inconvenience for students to have to drive five kilometres to Interurban and then not be able to find any parking.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Interurban, it\u2019s very isolated. It\u2019s kind of far\u2026 which gives them really no choice but to drive,\u201d says Umulisa. \u201cThere\u2019s three schools on that campus, and that\u2019s a lot of students, and then there\u2019s staff, and everybody else. So I have heard that usually there\u2019s not enough parking, and I suppose they can take buses, but that can delay [the students] and staff. Now that they\u2019re moving a whole other school there, and have only added 200 spots, somehow I feel like it\u2019s not going to be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

First year Nursing student Emma Jacob is pleased with the new building, but not with the campus\u2019 parking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take the bus in the morning,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about 30 minutes to bus there from where I park. I would rather drive, but the parking is too expensive and the parking lot fills up really early in the morning and there aren\u2019t enough spots left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Interurban students have no complaints about parking, because they don\u2019t drive, like first-year Arts and Science student Thorben Stau, who has more trouble with the commute to Landowne than the commute to Interurban.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is, my homestay is 50 minutes away from the Lansdowne campus, so it\u2019s pretty far away because three of the classes are Lansdowne,\u201d says Stau. \u201cThat\u2019s the only problem, but overall, it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bremner says that it\u2019s important to approach transportation problems by thinking holistically.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a silver bullet to transportation and parking problems,\u201d she says. \u201cWhenever I look at transportation, it\u2019s not just a matter of a number of cars on the road or in our parking lot, but it\u2019s a result of other socio-economic and regional aspects that are going on, such as what\u2019s the most affordable place to live, and students have to consider, \u2018Do I have to get to work or pick up my kids after class?\u2019 Do people feel like they live in a safe and walkable community? How comfortable and familiar are they using alternative transportation? I think a lot of those aspects feed into people\u2019s transportation decisions, and that\u2019s the approach we take into consideration.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While Camosun advocates alternative methods of transportation, for many students, biking or walking to Interurban would be basically impossible. That\u2019s why Camosun has started the Park and Ride\/Park and Walk program. With several parking areas provided outside of the Interurban campus, located at Tillicum, Wildwood Outdoor Living Centre, and the Saanich Baptist Church, Bremner is greatly encouraged by the growing popularity of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think from what we\u2019ve seen so far, from what we\u2019ve seen from the Park and Ride\/Park and Walk program, I\u2019m very optimistic,\u201d says Bremner. \u201cCumulatively we have about 70 stalls of Park and Ride\/Park and Walk for students, and they\u2019re for students only, not for staff. That provides free parking in areas that provide ready access to other transportation solutions, such as jumping on a transit bus to get to campus, having a relatively flat and easy cycle commute, or having a realistic walk within 20 minutes or less. So I feel very positive and optimistic about the Park and Ride program. We\u2019ve already had a significant number of students register and we haven\u2019t even really started marketing that program yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umulisa says that the Park and Ride program is going to benefit those who can use it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is going to help,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s good that we have parking somewhere that\u2019s not on campus. It can go halfway and park at Tillicum, but then again, it would be more convenient if that parking space was available on campus. It\u2019s still good.\u201d<\/p>\n

For students who don\u2019t benefit from off-campus parking, Bremner suggests using the Camosun Express shuttle bus, which drives from Lansdowne to Interurban on a recently updated schedule including stops in Royal Oak and the West Shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Express improvements on the schedule we had this year was a direct result from our research for the new Transportation Demand Management Plan that the college has. It\u2019s a five-year plan with the primary goal of providing convenient, environmentally responsible, and affordable access to both of our campuses, and a key aspect of that plan and that research was looking at how we can improve the Express,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about the West Shore commuter service that we\u2019re bringing online. Roughly 25 percent of our students come from the West Shore, and this provides a very efficient way for them to get to and from campus at the beginning and end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umulisa believes that the best solution is to see how the parking lot affects students first-hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my colleagues, and we are really hoping that the college will be monitoring the parking situation during the first week, because that\u2019s going to be a critical part of this whole thing,\u201d says Umulisa. \u201cEverybody\u2019s new and trying to get to this campus. And if there are any concerns, I feel like they should remediate and look for solutions. Students do not have a choice but to drive to Interurban sometimes, especially when they have early-morning classes. Buses run about every 20 minutes, and that really does not help at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Camosun has heard and responded to these critiques of the buses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cScheduling improvements, like having the [Camosun Express] bus arrive earlier in the day [to] allow a bit more flexible time before class started for both staff and students, was one of the recommendations we heard, as well as more continuous service throughout the week, so we enhanced our Friday schedule,\u201d says Bremner. \u201cWe extended the hours that it operates, having a later departure time as well for people, and also, on the campus-to-campus shuttle, added a stop for the Royal Oak exchange, which helps to diversify commuting options for people, so whether they\u2019re choosing the Park and Ride program that\u2019s available at the Royal Oak area, or whether they\u2019re using the BC [Transit] routes to come from other parts of the region, such as the Saanich Peninsula, we think that that will really provide a more convenient option.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A\u00a0<\/span>brand-new building with a brand-new parking lot might not change the future of the campus, but it might provide a lot of relief for students who always get shortchanged when pulling into a parking lot spilling over with cars. There are plenty of solutions, but these solutions can only work if the students can use them. Camosun has certainly responded to students\u2019 concerns; otherwise, it wouldn\u2019t have added a parking lot that reaches the maximum number of spaces permitted by Saanich, set up off-campus parking, or changed the Camosun Express schedules to suit students\u2019 needs. But, keeping night classes in mind, will the new schedule run late enough? Are the off-campus spaces going to transport the students in time? How is the school going to respond when the new parking lot is overrun with students?<\/p>\n

We can only guess what will happen, and our prior experiences with the school will affect what we think of the new parking lot available to us. To some, this might be the dream scenario, but to others, it might make more room for disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Camosun opening the doors to the new Alex & Jo Campbell Centre for Health and Wellness at the Interurban campus this month, there is excitement brewing for everyone. The building has a sleek design and room for more intensive and specialized classrooms and, of course, a lot of students. This means that Interurban, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-september-11-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18151,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18149\/revisions\/18151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}