The start of a new semester at the University of Hawaii this week, means the start of a recurring issue. The lack of parking in the Manoa area.
Students we talked to say it’s a nightmare trying to find a parking spot near campus. The problem makes people frustrated and even a little creative.
If you take a look at University Avenue, or Dole Street, you’ll quickly notice:
"The parking situation is really bad," said Timothy Liu, UH student.
"It’s extremely difficult," said Simone Weber, UH student.
The side streets near the Manoa campus, do not help.
"I would show up 30 minutes late to classes sometimes if I have them on the opposite side of campus and stuff, it’s a bummer," Weber said.
It appears, someone, was really fed up with the problem. Take a look at these marked parking spots on Vancouver Drive near University Avenue. Notice anything out of the ordinary? Someone, actually spray painted this stall on the road. You can see the parking lines are far from perfect and it’s under a "no parking" sign.
"Why would anyone try to do that? They’re just going to get a ticket," said Taylor Caster, UH student.
A Honolulu Police officer who talked to us off-camera says he has issued a $35 ticket to those who park here. He also says city crews plan to paint over this unofficial stall. On this day, he ticketed numerous cars, including this one that wasn’t properly parked. But that didn’t seem to phase the owner of the car, who showed up a short time later.
"I really, do not care," the man said. "I’m going to throw this in the trash over there."
And that’s exactly what he did.
The university does provide 5,700 stalls on upper and lower campus, half of which, are for students. A permit for the lower campus parking structure is $142 per semester. But students say:
"They sell out so quickly that it’s almost impossible to get it," Caster said.
"Besides they’re always full, so it’s kind of hard to get parking that way too," Liu said.
UH officials do not plan to build a new parking structure or add to existing ones, because that would cost up to $60,000 dollars per stall, which does not include operating costs.
"I think it’s detrimental to the education we’re supposed to be getting when we’re missing classes because we can’t find parking," Weber said.
UH officials encourage people to bus, bike, carpool or walk to school.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
