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Comment by legohead | Hacker News Reader

They wouldn't have to resort to any shenanigans if parking on campus was free for students.

Why should the campus subsidize the car-owning students? If those students want exclusive use of a public space why not let them pay market rates for it?

The students are paying for a service from the University. It's very reasonable that the University provide parking space for those who can't afford to live on campus. Actually, it's in their best interest, unless they want to be an online school. And thus similarly in the best interest of all students, if they want a locally accessible University to exist.

The students are paying for an education. If they prefer to drive, their fellow students who make other choices should not be expected to subsidize them.

> The students are paying for a service from the University.

Yes but not a parking service. If you want to park, arrange that yourself somewhere else, like a private garage.

When I was in University, there were a ton of services available to me that I never used, yet I was charged various generic fees.

Sure - this is always a balancing act but given how expensive cars are to own and the students who can’t use them, I would generally favor increasing transit and sidewalks, etc. rather than subsidizing parking since that benefits everyone.

Keep in mind that this university has a fairly limited transit system. (http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/CART/Design/156208-CART%20map%...) The school I went to, also in Oklahoma, had zero transit options.

If they fired a few useless administrative officials they could lower tuition across the board and offer free parking to students

Are you kidding? If parking was free then nobody would be able to park there. Everyone would drive even if they only lived a few blocks away or a single bus ride away.

It would be unavailable to students who actually need it.

So only the privileged should be able to park? If that would seriously be the issue with free parking, then build parking garages.

If you're driving around in a private vehicle as a college student you're probably already pretty privileged.

There's no way in a million years I could have afforded my own car as a student.

I saved money by living off-campus and driving to school using the cheap car that I also needed to get to work. There are a lot of places in the US like that, where you can't afford not to have a car.

> If that would seriously be the issue with free parking, then build parking garages.

This sidesteps the underlying decision of who pays for those garages. Either you charge for parking and the people who use it pay, or you don't and every student (even the ones who take the bus or carpool) pay.

Why are these people driving to college in the first place? Take public transport.

It's Oklahoma. The city is likely very spread out and even if there are public transport options, you will need a vehicle to get to and from the bus stop.

To a person, everyone that i know that commutes to school lives outside the metro area served by public transport.

It's not UC Davis or Europe. Btw, if living near the main centroid of Davis, it's faster to bike than it is to drive or take a bus because parking + walking takes time. I even had the gate code to park right next to classrooms (it's good to know the parking folks, especially on rainy days) but that still took more time and costed more money than biking. Davis is also one of the most walkable cities, especially living around downtown.

PS: I took the ten year professional student plan between working at Stanford for a couple years and consulting. I had half of my courses canceled in 2000 when they couldn't find lecturers because most were out making $250-500k in industry.

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