2008 Woodie Awards
De Anza needs more parking structures
THE OPINION OF THE LA VOZ WEEKLY EDITORIAL BOARD
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Editorial
The parking lot needs our love.
No, not hugs and kisses. What it needs is a little devotion. While administrators love to draft grand schemes for new buildings within the campus, planning for parking lots remains haphazard and slipshod.
Driving through the lots leaves one feeling either bewildered or unsafe, if not both. There are random cul de sacs that trap you, blocked off entrances and exits, confusing intersections and dangerous turns.
Instead of having a well thought out plan for parking, the administration seems content to take things one entrance or exit at a time, one small improvement at a time.
It's like having a different contractor come in to work on your house every month. None of them work long enough to finish anything, and eventually you end up with a confused jumbled mess.
Walking or biking through the lots can be even worse. Automobiles rush past looking for parking with dangerous disregard for the toes of passing pedestrians.
The crosswalks help, but when drivers get impatient they don't care enough to stop.
In reality, it seems like the overall layout never even took into account that students would be forced to trudge across the parking lots on foot.
There are no distinct walkways other than the crosswalks at certain areas. Other than that, pedestrians are forced to fend for themselves alongside SUVs and cars.
The multi-level parking garages, by contrast, are a model of efficiency and safety. The eastern parking garage even has solar panels providing energy for the campus and shade for the cars beneath it. The garages are also simpler to navigate and bypass the danger posed to pedestrian traffic.
It's a simple concept, one that works brilliantly on the northwest corner of campus. Parking is built up, not out, and there are more than enough paths that lead in and out of school without ever having to cross a parking space.
A lot of improvements have made De Anza better over the years, but what should come before anything else is the practical necessity of getting on and off campus easily, from any corner.
Even though administrators wouldn't be able to brag as much about parking as they can about the new environmentally friendly Campus Center, parking should be priority one.
No, not hugs and kisses. What it needs is a little devotion. While administrators love to draft grand schemes for new buildings within the campus, planning for parking lots remains haphazard and slipshod.
Driving through the lots leaves one feeling either bewildered or unsafe, if not both. There are random cul de sacs that trap you, blocked off entrances and exits, confusing intersections and dangerous turns.
Instead of having a well thought out plan for parking, the administration seems content to take things one entrance or exit at a time, one small improvement at a time.
It's like having a different contractor come in to work on your house every month. None of them work long enough to finish anything, and eventually you end up with a confused jumbled mess.
Walking or biking through the lots can be even worse. Automobiles rush past looking for parking with dangerous disregard for the toes of passing pedestrians.
The crosswalks help, but when drivers get impatient they don't care enough to stop.
In reality, it seems like the overall layout never even took into account that students would be forced to trudge across the parking lots on foot.
There are no distinct walkways other than the crosswalks at certain areas. Other than that, pedestrians are forced to fend for themselves alongside SUVs and cars.
The multi-level parking garages, by contrast, are a model of efficiency and safety. The eastern parking garage even has solar panels providing energy for the campus and shade for the cars beneath it. The garages are also simpler to navigate and bypass the danger posed to pedestrian traffic.
It's a simple concept, one that works brilliantly on the northwest corner of campus. Parking is built up, not out, and there are more than enough paths that lead in and out of school without ever having to cross a parking space.
A lot of improvements have made De Anza better over the years, but what should come before anything else is the practical necessity of getting on and off campus easily, from any corner.
Even though administrators wouldn't be able to brag as much about parking as they can about the new environmentally friendly Campus Center, parking should be priority one.
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