As a resident of the dorms, I pay for a residential parking pass. That’s roughly $170 for two semesters, a price which changes every year. However, I rarely use my parking pass.
While there is a residential “R” permit lot near my building, I can usually find better parking on Ivinson Ave.
There are much fewer one-way streets to deal with, and it is much easier to bypass the stress produced by Grand Ave. and its central median.
Even for students not living in the dorms, an open space on Ivinson is a jackpot. It’s close to some of the most popular buildings on campus, and it’s free.
As long as one is capable and willing to parallel park, I would always say Ivinson is the best bet for student parking.
However, that is all soon to change. With the planned addition of the Ivinson parking garage on the block between Grand and Ivinson avenues and 10th and 11th streets.
The new garage is planned to house three levels, 374 permit regulated parking spaces, and 40 metered spaces.
The structure will also house the new offices for campus police, but at least the outside is projected to look less like your standard parking garage and more like other sandstone buildings on campus.
Overall, the outlook and anticipation of the project as presented by university officials has been positive, but that’s no surprise.
As a student who will not be in possession of an “R” permit by the time construction is completed on the garage, however, I have some concerns for parking.
So far, no information has been released as to which permits will have spaces available in the Ivinson parking garage.
“C” permits are intended for students who reside off-campus anywhere other than the residence halls, and “A” permits are given to university faculty and staff.
Paying by the hour for metered parking doesn’t make sense for students attending multiple in-person classes on campus, so those 40 spaces are out of the question.
Ideally, only “C” and “A” permits will be allowed spaces in the garage, with a priority towards “C” commuters, whose best options currently stand as either:
A) showing up hours early to stake out a free streetside space near campus
B) parking in designated “C” lots further from campus and waiting for a shuttle to whisk them to one of five bus stops.
Of course, I support the idea of public transportation, and I expect to use plenty of it in my time as a college student.
However, in a campus-wide 2018 study on transit, 70% of students prefer to drive and park their own car rather than take public transport, and I am part of that majority.
Based upon this and my own experience of growing up in Wyoming, it isn’t hard to imagine how quickly the Ivinson garage will fill up with vehicles which only carry one or two students or staff to campus each day.
It is relatively safe to assume that most of the 375 permit spaces will be given to “A” staff permits, as a large portion of “A” parking has been lost to various construction projects across campus.
If this assumption holds true, then we can expect to see little change for “C” permit-holding students living off-campus, who are a large and loud demographic at this university.
As long as we are a society stuck on owning and driving our own vehicles and Laramie remains far too small for a truly efficient public transportation system, I predict that parking will always remain a point of contention.
It will be interesting to sit back and see exactly how the addition of the new Ivinson parking garage will affect public perception of the parking ecosystem at the university in the coming years.
For more information on the new Ivinson parking garage, click here.
