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PARKING
Shuttle service is better than nothing

Neighborhood residents, the City of Fort Worth Transportation and the Public Works Department are all joining efforts to keep students from parking on residential streets around east campus.

They want to make it illegal to park on much of the area of these streets and for those brazen students’ cars to be towed, instead of just ticketed, when they do park illegally.

Now it is time for TCU to do something about the situation.

Neighborhood residents have a right to be upset about being stuck in their own driveways and not being able to navigate through their own streets, even if they are being a little too heavy-handed with the plan to tow cars before ticketing them. But students often have little choice but to park on residential streets much of the time.

Currently, students would rather park on residential streets illegally and pay a $12 to $30 ticket rather than park on campus and risk paying $75 to $150 for a ticket. It’s simple math really.

So, what are the options? The best option seems to be a parking garage with at least 600 spaces. However, administrators often cite a lack of funding and the reluctance of alumni donors to contribute to a building intended solely for parking.

A shuttle service could be developed to drop off students on east campus from the lot west of the stadium. But, once again, administrators have said in the past that surveys indicate a lack of interest from students in developing such a service.

But if students are going to be even further restricted from residential streets and if the garage just isn’t in the cards, then the shuttle issue may just have to be revisited.