You try to squeeze a lunch expedition into the 35 precious minutes you get for lunch. You’re speeding back to school and just as class is about to start you pull onto Brandeis. Searching franticly for a parking spot you realize every possible spot is taken. You look at the many open spaces in the senior parking lot enviously, asking the question many junior have stumbled across: Why can’t juniors pay for parking passes?
Almost every junior with a license has been forced to park extremely far from school or even illegally. I know that when I go to lunch I have to give myself an extra five minutes just to find a parking spot. These five minutes are one-seventh of my lunchtime, sometimes my only free time the whole day and these minutes could be better spent then prowling Brandies for parking spots. As the year progresses more and more kids get their licenses and that means less spots are available. This shortage in parking directly results in reckless driving and accidents. If students knew that a spot was available in close proximity to the school, they wouldn’t have to drive recklessly during free blocks and lunches. A lot of reckless driving is due to the stress of trying to find a parking space. That stress could be eliminated by allowing juniors to purchase parking passes.
Illegal parking at South is another problem as the number of licensed juniors increases. Students are forced to park illegally resulting in costly fines and towing. I know juniors who have paid over $200 in parking tickets and had their car towed. These expensive violations could become far less frequent if South would simply offer juniors the opportunity to purchase passes.
Lets face it. The senior parking lot is never full and it’s a ridiculous concept to exclude juniors from parking in it just because they’re juniors. Seniors should still have definite priority over the purchase of these passes and the juniors should only have the opportunity to buy the extra passes. What’s the harm in that?
