NUIG and the elephant in the room

johngalway

For this thread, the elephants name is parking, or lack of it. My girlfriend is attending NUIG and also uses the gym there. She lives in the city yet is often forced to leave unduly early for class so as to find a parking spot, or, leave in the time it takes to actually get there and be late for class because she can't find parking. She was actually accosted one day by a student shouting profanities for parking in a spot the student claimed was hers (it wasn't, irrelevant story for this thread).

My question is, why not build one, or two decent sized multistory car parks and just be done with the problem. From my point of view, not having these facilities is setting the University back, and for a place that's supposedly inhabited by smart people, they look a bit of a laughing stock.

Will it ever get done? If not, what are the obstacles in their way?

f1dan

johngalway wrote: »

For this thread, the elephants name is parking, or lack of it. My girlfriend is attending NUIG and also uses the gym there. She lives in the city yet is often forced to leave unduly early for class so as to find a parking spot, or, leave in the time it takes to actually get there and be late for class because she can't find parking. She was actually accosted one day by a student shouting profanities for parking in a spot the student claimed was hers (it wasn't, irrelevant story for this thread).

My question is, why not build one, or two decent sized multistory car parks and just be done with the problem. From my point of view, not having these facilities is setting the University back, and for a place that's supposedly inhabited by smart people, they look a bit of a laughing stock.

Will it ever get done? If not, what are the obstacles in their way?

AFAIK, the problem with a multi-storey car park was regarding planning permission and the need for the college to maintain a certain amount of green areas. Does she use the park and ride facilities in Dangan?

LadyMayBelle

I wouldn't exactly call it the 'elephant in the room', as it is one of the most talked about issues on campus..

I have been attending the univeristy for on and off the past ten years, and only this year I have a car. Have also gotten parking every day for the past three months in Corrib Village, and that is around 09:45 every morning. Maybe it is the luck of the draw and the fact my car is small-ish...

Would she not consider parking in Dangan? It's not that long a walk, and anyways the bus comes and goes every 15minutes..it's a great resource not being utilised enough at all. I can understand her gym problem, but maybe rent a locker on campus for her stuff if she doesn't want to carry it round all day?

Where do you suggest they build a multi-storey? Great idea, but question is where? Probably in Dangan:)

snubbleste

Tell her to get a bicycle. No parking problems and save on the gym fee as well. See, easy!

I don't understand why people who live 20 minutes walk away from campus insist on driving in.

Fionn MacCool

Why is she driving if she lives in the city? Here's a tip: save on gym fees by walking/cycling to college. I feel that the parking problem is mainly due to some people driving into college when they live only a short distance away.

LadyMayBelle

snubbleste wrote: »

Tell her to get a bicycle. No parking problems and save on the gym fee as well. See, easy!

I don't understand why people who live 20 minutes walk away from campus insist on driving in.

And if the answer to that is, I have books, laptop, gym gear, I say, lockers! They are bleedin' everywhere!

biko

I'm gonna bump this over to po0k in NUIG forum I'm sure the students will agree with you there OP.

Xiney

Seriously - get yourself a good set of paniers (got a set from halfords for 40 euro at one time and for years used to do a full weeks' shopping with them!) and ride a bike into college.

There should be priority given to students and faculty who live more than 7 miles from campus or who have a disability which does not allow them to cycle, then whatever's left can go into a lottery (paid tickets, proceeds going to college improvements or a charity) for the entitled few who simply MUST drive.

unJustMary

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

What the **** is she driving for if she lives in the city?

+100 for the first bit of that post.

It's a 15-20 minute walk!

johngalway

I'm very disappointed with the attitude of some posters on here who simply know nothing of this persons situation yet feel qualified enough to pass such scathing judgments. Because of that I see no further value in contributing to this thread.

Black_Knight

The park and ride is never full, from what I hear.

I got a lift in with a buddie of mine this morning, I always walk but I was in no rush today so I gave him some company.
We parked in the Park and ride, at the far side of corrib village, got the shuttle bus, and even the lovely sunny day that it was, corrib villagers got on 100m from the college/corrib village entrance, and got off at the gym. It was disgraceful! No more then a 500m walk/drive.

Theres no real need for a multistory car park. The college is trying (poorly) to promote cycling/walking to college, though removing all the sheltered bike spaces under the concourse didnt help. The college needs a secure bike shed, and shower facilities for those who do cycle.

johngalway

johngalway wrote: »

I'm very disappointed with the attitude of some posters on here who simply know nothing of this persons situation yet feel qualified enough to pass such scathing judgments. Because of that I see no further value in contributing to this thread.

All you told us was - she lives in the city and drives to college.

This is the internet - what do you want us to base it on?

For the record - I took Burke's Buses or got a lift to college during my time there.
I don't remember any of my friends complaining about parking, no-one in my class of 15 had a car for the first couple of years, one did in final year.

Edit: My question is, why should the vast non driving population of students pay directly or indirectly for multi story car parks?

Fionn MacCool

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

What the **** is she driving for if she lives in the city? Here's a tip, genius, save on your rip-off gym fees by walking to college. The parking problem is mainly caused by spoilt brats driving daddys car into college when they live 15 mins away.

You realize you sound like a complete plank.?

Webbs

Car parking is a privilege not a right, there is an attitude that 'I have a car therefore I can park wherever'.

What do you propose the University do? There are approx 15000 students staff etc do you say that the University should go by the idea that there should be 15000 car park spaces in case everyone wants to drive and that all the spaces be right next to wherever you want to go!

I agree with the posters who say that anyone who lives within a 20min walk (obviously disabled etc not included) should not have access to a space or pay a lot for it.
How many of the people who drive within this radius complain about traffic when they are a major reason for the traffic snarl ups
Phew rant over

KevR

I think they should have built an underground car park under the new gym and another one under the engineering building (which is under construction at the moment).

The parking situation is a joke (and this is coming from someone who doesn't drive to college). The City Council say they don't want every green space on the NUIG campus paved over for car parks. That is fair enough but it is idiotic on their part to think that 15,000 people will be able to make do with a few small car parks on-campus and a biggish one in Dangan (I would consider this to be off-campus as far as going to lectures is concerned). Why did the City Council ever grant planning permission for the Orbsen Building, the IT Building, the new gym, the new Engineering Building and others without attaching planning conditions that there had to be underground carparks at all of those buildings????

Of course every green space will get paved over if NUIG expect build new buildings and have surface carparks everywhere. Those buildings should never have been allowed to be built without appropriate parking facilities.

I live 20 mins walk from the college and I always walk this year. Last year my situation was different - I lived in the same place but worked every evening in Ballybrit (yes, some of us do have to pay fees and don't get a grant). I cycled to college and then onto work whenever the weather was decent but if the weather was **** I drove. I usually had to rush straight from college in the evening to work so leaving the car at home in the morning and walking 20 mins home to get it in the evening before heading to work was not an option. Also, parking in Corrib Village or Dangan wouldn't have been an option for me as it would take as long to walk to Corrib Village or get the bus to Dangan as it would for me to walk home. I needed to park somewhere within a few minutes walk of where my lectures were on, end of story. I usually had to come into college really early to get a space near my lectures.

PS - the internal road network around the campus has gone to shite. It has been dug up so many times and never once restored properly. :mad:

Columc

The parking in and around the college is crazy. Everyone knows that, everyone that lives around the college knows that. Its not a big secret.

The reason the college isnt building big multi-story car parks or underground carparks around the gym or enginerring building is simple. Planning permission. The city council wants to try and stop car conjustion around the city. So by doing this they are trying to set up Park and Ride hot spots around the outer areas of the city.


I know the college have been trying to get planning permission for a few years and failed. The best they did was create the car park out passed corrib village. Its a great place, but unfortunaly the college are not paying busses to drive on a regular basis from the car park to the college. From what i heard there was massive problems due to each faculty didnt want to pay for the busses out of their budget(this is what i heard, may or may not be true)


Everyone knows Parking is terrible around galway, hell didnt the owners of supermacs wanted to build a car park under eyre square and offered to pay for it. The same thing applied the Council wants less car conjusting in and around the city. But it wont work unless a probper park and ride system is set up for all outer areas of galway. But its the people who live 10 minutes away that drive in cause of their lazyness. When i was there i tried to cycle to college every day. I know weather denies this most of the time but still people in galway prefer to drive for 2 minutes and look for parking for 30 minutes then to walk for 5.


The only way i can see the college getting any way better is if the council and the college get their act together and get a proper park and ride facility with proper regular busses arriving and leaving frequently. The college does not and will never have enough spaces for the people attedning it in the center of the campus. I think the spaces should be gotten rid off and be green areas. Getting rid of the tennis courts for parking was ridiculus adding 20 more spaces, but getting rid of something that people actualy used. And with the engeinnerging building that car park is gone as well.

sparklingdude

takes me about ten minutes to walk to school. used to take me about 15 minutes to walk to the subway that used to take me to school.

why the hell do people insist on driving to school? this town is the size of a pea. while you're complaining about this goddam parking lot, the rest of town is complaining about traffic in town.

W A L K I N G

po0k

KevR

Columc wrote: »

The reason the college isnt building big multi-story car parks or underground carparks around the gym or enginerring building is simple. Planning permission. The city council wants to try and stop car conjustion around the city. So by doing this they are trying to set up Park and Ride hot spots around the outer areas of the city.

Everyone knows Parking is terrible around galway, hell didnt the owners of supermacs wanted to build a car park under eyre square and offered to pay for it. The same thing applied the Council wants less car conjusting in and around the city.

I wouldn't call it simple. It's quite clear that people driving around for 20/30 mins looking for a parking space adds to congestion and the lack of spaces results in illegal parking around the city which also adds to congestion.

The current NUIG park and ride is actually further for a lot of people than the main campus which means people are on the road longer to get to the P&R which means more congestion. Anyone approaching NUIG from the East, West or South will have to drive further to the P&R than they would the actual campus. Only people coming from Oughterard/Moycullen have a shorter drive to get to the P&R.

I don't see the advantages of getting rid of spaces in the central campus in favour of green areas and a P&R further out. I don't understand why there is such a fascination with surface parking - you could have an underground car park with a green area on top of it (on the normal surface). They have this in France - underground city centre car parks with green areas/public spaces on the surface.

KevR

sparklingdude wrote: »

why the hell do people insist on driving to school? this town is the size of a pea.

There are 72,000 permanent residents in Galway (possibly close to 80,000 if you include students and others which are here on a 'temporary basis'). Almost 30,000 people commute into Galway everyday.

There are no medium or high rise buildings anywhere in Galway. It's an endless low-rise sprawl.

Depending on what you class as Galway City:
Barna - Doughiska = 12km
Barna - Oranmore = 15.5km

Hardly pea size and it's difficult to provide good public transport in a horribly sprawled city such as this. It's quite obvious that walking (and even cycling) is not an option for many people unfortunately, nor is public transport.

gerkeo

I think a major issue being overlooked here is the university continually building along the river.

They have built the NCBES, IT building, New Gym (without doubt the ugliest building ever built in galway, gmit is a close second though) They bought the monastery on the newcastle side of the bridge a few years ago and concreted the whole place ruining a beautiful piece of land along the river. I really believe they could be alot more considerate when designing these buildings.

I realise the Uni need the facilities but these places could have been built at far more accessable / servicable locations such as the IDA park in dangan or even move a department to Liosbaun or parkmore.

KevR

Isn't the library the tallest building at 5 stories? Most others are on 4 stories or less. It's a joke, they should have built some 8+ story buildings and used a lot less land.

RichCRX

As for space...tear up the staff parking behind the IT building...a multi-storey car park would go nicely in there.It will never happen though as staff car parking will never be sacrificed.(dont forget the staff parking place that was built just across from cairnes building)

The college teaches us on ways to be creative and innovative which is a load of balls when they can't even do it themselves...that innovation centre would want to get off their holes!!!

The park and ride is a badly located,non promoted piece of dagans.Its only easily accesible through passing the college and through college village or going down to a congested roundabout every morning cause ya can't take a right hand turn just before that onto the moycullen road.As for promoting it...well theirs none.

I hope that some of the innovation crowd in their might read this a take head of some suggestions I have;

-Provide bus links to and from college student campuses...some of them are ages away from the college so choose to drive.
-Promote the park and ride more!!!
-Try for planning permission for a multi-story carpark and keep at it till ya get it and don't use up all the space close to the college in the meantime...it has to central.
-build better bike shelters
-promote cycling around the college...give away more free bikes in competitions
-give out cheap or free umbrella's in the student union at the start of the year and promote walking
-sign posts around the college wouldn't go astray to let people know where the actual facilities are and don't presume everyone knows.


I'll let ye figure out the rest...

It really is a joke though

Caliden

johngalway wrote: »

I'm very disappointed with the attitude of some posters on here who simply know nothing of this persons situation yet feel qualified enough to pass such scathing judgments. Because of that I see no further value in contributing to this thread.

See no value in contributing because people have pointed out the obvious/simple solution?

I live ~15 miles outside town and had to leave at 7:45am to get in early enough to get a parking space and this was last year when there were so many more parking spaces compared to now.

KevR

By the way, they are resurfacing the gravel carpark opposite the Kingfisher at the moment.

About time!! It was a total disgrace! Hopefully they will paint some lines on it while they're at it.

snubbleste

KevR wrote: »

By the way, they are resurfacing the gravel carpark opposite the Kingfisher at the moment.
About time!! It was a total disgrace! Hopefully they will paint some lines on it while they're at it.

That carpark supposed to be temporary, the idea was that the area would return to greenfield status. So it is not approved under planning guidelines as a designated car park?

KevR

I didn't get a proper look at what sort of surface was being put down on the gravel carpark, I could only see them working on it as I drove over the bridge. I assume it will just be some sort of gravel resurfacing that they do because I think it's still only temporary.

They'll probably just put fresh gravel down and steam-roll it to compress it. They could paint lines - the lines wouldn't last an aweful long time on the gravel but it would be better than nothing.

f1dan

If there were more sheltered bike racks and good accessible changing facilities with showers and lockers so people can cycle in no matter the weather, it might encourage more people to cycle in.