New parking plans in Maynooth

Astrobotty

So to cater for a severe lack of parking in Maynooth, we see the introduction of paid parking from now on.
This paid parking is going to cost the average student 40 quid a year.
Does anyone know why this fee is imposed? Who would want to park in NUIM if they were not students? The train station is too far away.
I saw a car clamped today in the new '1 euro 1 hour parking' at the Callan building, It is designed to make more spaces available, but now no one wants to park there because they will have to pay 1 euro per hour ON TOP of our new 40 euro fee.
I tried to drive into the library today and that car park is also closed.
Is it just me or is this getting absolutely ridiculous?

Thanks to new policies and new construction there is a serious lack of parking in Maynooth and I feel this is terrible and unfair.
Welcome to NUI Maynooth, the only place you can be clamped when parked in a legally designated parking space!

Anyone disagree? Agree?
Let me know

LeixlipRed

I have or am in the process of doing a reactionary piece to all this jazz but I'm just too busy and tired at the moment. Probably after Christmas before I get around to it. The college said in their presentation July that they'd have lots of supports in place before this all rolled out. For example Car Pooling and Guaranteed Ride Home Schemes? Anyone heard anything about these?

But bottom line, I firmly believe no one should have to pay to park on campus. Students and staff that is. Especially considering that the parking facilities here are sub-standard.

banquo

Send it to The Print!

Theprint@nuimsu.com

LeixlipRed

Also, it's my understanding that the private company operating the traffic management will share some of the revenue from this venture. A complete disgrace to be honest, students who are already hit in the pocket severly by the budget are now being asked to fork out to pay for inadequate facilities with not all of the revenue going into improving those facilities.

I think we can all acknowledge the need to encourage people to take public transport to college and to walk or cycle were necessary. However, public transport services to Maynooth are less than impressive. And they've done away with cycle lanes on North Campus (yet these pay and display/permit initiatives are aimed at improving health and safety??) leaving no safe areas on the ring road for cyclist.

Astrobotty

It is just frustrating when I look into the library staff car park, which has too many spaces for cars.
AND the same being said beside the pitches on South Campus, behind the seminary. I used to park there in first year, but now it is barricaded off. There are empty spaces there every day when everywhere else is full, but we arent allowed past the barrier.
I don't like seeing the staff having nearly two parking spaces each, when the students have about one space per ten students.

LeixlipRed

banquo wrote: »

Send it to The Print!

Theprint@nuimsu.com

I mean something to present at a FEE or SWSS meeting, not an article. But if I get my **** together I'll send it your way

LeixlipRed

Astrobotty wrote: »

It is just frustrating when I look into the library staff car park, which has too many spaces for cars.
AND the same being said beside the pitches on South Campus, behind the seminary. I used to park there in first year, but now it is barricaded off. There are empty spaces there every day when everywhere else is full, but we arent allowed past the barrier.
I don't like seeing the staff having nearly two parking spaces each, when the students have about one space per ten students.

To be honest, I don't think it's a staff v student issue. Have a read through the attached document. Can anyone tell me if any of the ideas suggested to counteract the introduction of permit parking and pay and display have been implemented? Because I have seen no indication that any of them have.

Link

Ian Beale

There is a lot of people that park in the college all day that aren't students however instead of charging us for the permits in my opinion a better system would be to issue a parking permit at no cost to the students that request them however if they lose them then charge them €20/40 for a replacement, the same as if you lose your student card. It'd identify the non student/staff cars and the very very small cost of a few laminating pouches would be recovered from the new parking enforcement company anyway.
Wasn't the excuse used that the money will go towards new parking areas? I'll believe that when I see it :rolleyes:

LeixlipRed

Well the money goes towards it after "revenue sharing" with the private company

Ian Beale

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Well the money goes towards it after "revenue sharing" with the private company

Oh I just had a read of that link you posted, on page 6.
No land available for major expansion of car parking spaces
Multi-storey option not feasible:
- cost up to €10m (650 spaces)
- 4 to 5 stories high
Underground option prohibitive


So what we really need is some sky hooks?

cian1500ww

You'd think with the amount of fees that students are paying that they'd give us a place to park at no extra charge...

lordgoat

Total disgrace. Ignore the problem and use it as a way to make money. There is no other way to dress it up. They might as well call it a NUIM car tax and be done with it.

Where is the 40E going, hardly for car park upkeep, or the building of a new car park.

Also if cars are clamped by this company for park on the kilcock road i'm pretty sure that's not allowed as it's technically out of the college grounds.

Kilcock road going to be a busy place, especially when the old footbridge gets knocked, luckily though the are putting in a pedestrian crossing. Yes folks another genius idea from NUI Maynooth.

LeixlipRed

Kilcock road parking is illegal. So that's an issue for the Guards. The 40 euro will go right into the coffers of some private company. I'm deeply uncomfortable with the idea of private companies clamping on campus. Clamping isn't exactly known for being the most reputable business.

John

We could always go at the clampers French style by superglueing the locks of every clamp you see.

Daemos

Ah yes, the irony of clamping. They don't want you to park there, but then they don't let you leave :rolleyes:

LeixlipRed

But how do you extort money from people if not with the clamp?

Daemos

Become a banker

LeixlipRed

Thems some expensive clamps

ghostdancer

Astrobotty wrote: »

Who would want to park in NUIM if they were not students? The train station is too far away.
I saw a car clamped today in the new '1 euro 1 hour parking' at the Callan building, It is designed to make more spaces available, but now no one wants to park there because they will have to pay 1 euro per hour ON TOP of our new 40 euro fee.
I tried to drive into the library today and that car park is also closed.
Is it just me or is this getting absolutely ridiculous?

Thanks to new policies and new construction there is a serious lack of parking in Maynooth and I feel this is terrible and unfair.
Welcome to NUI Maynooth, the only place you can be clamped when parked in a legally designated parking space!

the 1euro per hour carpark is for visitors to the college.

it's obviously not for people who have a parking pass.

there's many people who visit daily who aren't part of the college. today in our department, there's been at least 5 people, and some days we can have 20+ who only come for the day. i'm sure launches of initiatives, projects or services draw more.
other people who park here are people who can't get a spot down the town, or people going to funerals or weddings during the week, who have nowhere else to park around the church, many also park in Aldi too.

hopefully that answers "Who would want to park in NUIM if they were not students? ", leaving aside the hundreds who work here.

Astrobotty wrote: »

It is just frustrating when I look into the library staff car park, which has too many spaces for cars.

if you're talking about the new "library staff carpark" behind Iontas, then no it doesn't. up until this week, after 10am there's no spots in there. there isn't even any defined spaces, as it's just gravel, which has lead to some pretty dangerous parking, and a number of scrapes. many of these spaces are also taken up by builders working around Iontas, or over at the canteen.

Astrobotty wrote: »

I don't like seeing the staff having nearly two parking spaces each, when the students have about one space per ten students.

nonsense. staff have the exact same problems as students. it doesn't help when many students park in the so-called "staff car parks", of which there are very few, and quite small anyway. the vast majority of staff have to park in the same carpark spaces as students.



for comparison, DCU costs €70 a semester for students, doesn't guarantee a spot, has no train to serve it, and has a lot less people in walking distance of the college.

ash xxx

To be honest, I agree that the parking permits and pay and display car parks are a bit harsh in this current climate. But I know why it has to be done, there are way to many people parking on campus that shouldn't be, as was mentioned above, people going to funerals, shopping, dropping off kids etc... As all of Maynooth town is introducing pay and display in the New Year, the parking situation on campus would only get worse without these measures.

I do believe that they brought in the one pay and display carpark too early as the permits won't be rolled out till the start of Semester 2. If you look at Aengus' article in The Print, he gives a complete overview of the new scheme. Frank Fitzmorris of Corporate Services also gave a talk at Union Council on Tuesday which was very informative. Any excess money gained by permits or clamping will go towards campus development such as cycle routes and shelters and car pooling initiatives.

Most other colleges charge for car parking and much more than our proposed €20 a semester. Andf if you think parking is only a problem in Maynooth, you are sadly mistaken. I am a former DCU student and the parking space/ car ratio was far worse than here.

Ostrom

I would also share Leixlip's concerns about private operators. Also the fundamental misunderstanding of how people respond to such charges - €40 per year is a low price for convenience, and I cant see this producing a reduction in traffic volume.

I think we need some sort of reaction before the new arrangements become settled

xxshebeexx

The only good thing I can see coming out of the €40 permit is that it might discourage some of the people who live near the college from driving in. I know a good few students, and staff, who live in walking distance to the college and still drive on a daily basis. That's not fair on the people who genuinely have to drive to college but can't find a space because someone from Kingsbry drives in everyday.

philologos

Astrobotty wrote: »

So to cater for a severe lack of parking in Maynooth, we see the introduction of paid parking from now on.
This paid parking is going to cost the average student 40 quid a year.
Does anyone know why this fee is imposed? Who would want to park in NUIM if they were not students? The train station is too far away.

10 minutes walk from the train station? If commuters have to do it why is it so difficult for anyone else?

I thought the charge was put in to discourage people living in Maynooth from driving from their house to the campus when they could walk it?

wonton

Jakkass wrote: »

I thought the charge was put in to discourage people living in Maynooth from driving from their house to the campus when they could walk it?

people actually do that? that has to be one of the best examples of lazyness and selfishness that you could find.

funky penguin

Yeah, plenty of people do it.

Astrobotty

First off,
@ Ian
Good point, charging us all 40 quid is unnecessary when we could be given permits for free. I would assume that enough cars would be clamped to cover the costs of permits.

@ Ghostdancer
The Library car park I am talking about is the one that is right behind the library. I just feel that if NUIM are going to severely limit the amount of student spaces in the library car park, they could at least put other spaces in place. That would be the main reason that I am frusturated with the 1 euro parking over in Callen. It is coming at a bad time, directly after we have already lost about50 parking spaces at the library.

@Jakkas,
I meant that people from the country who travel to dublin via the train in maynooth would not bother parking in NUIM and then walking to the train station to get their train into dublin when there are plenty of housing estates along the way where they could park.

So thats my little traffic vent over.... Now, next on to 'chill'!

mickstupp

Just wondering if these parking restrictions will be in place during exam periods? The demand is much lower at those times. For some us, our buses don't run outside semesters so driving can be the only method that doesn't take 3 hours each way on public transport. Will we have to get a permit just to deal with a two week period? Or impose on Aldi/Dunnes/Tesco/whatever?

declan06

mickstupp wrote: »

Just wondering if these parking restrictions will be in place during exam periods? The demand is much lower at those times. For some us, our buses don't run outside semesters so driving can be the only method that doesn't take 3 hours each way on public transport. Will we have to get a permit just to deal with a two week period? Or impose on Aldi/Dunnes/Tesco/whatever?

As far as I know it's starting at the start of semester 2
and it's being phased in, so people will be given warnings before being clamped

mickstupp

Sorry, I should have specified... I meant for exams next summer and beyond. If the demand for spaces during exams isn't surpassing available places, can the need for permits be dropped during exam periods? And also does anyone know if the restrictions will apply during the summer as well?

bat boy

I'm just starting a masters in maynooth at the end of january. Took a spin round the campus today to see what the parking situation was like. As far as I could see, there's loads of parking. The north campus had a huge amount of free spaces. Have some of those parking areas only been opened up? Or is the parking problem mainly restricted to the south campus?

I did my undergrad in NUI Galway and the student parking situation was unbelievably bad. They we're just about to bring in permit charges aswell.

leopoldbloom

bat boy wrote: »

I'm just starting a masters in maynooth at the end of january. Took a spin round the campus today to see what the parking situation was like. As far as I could see, there's loads of parking. The north campus had a huge amount of free spaces. Have some of those parking areas only been opened up? Or is the parking problem mainly restricted to the south campus?

I did my undergrad in NUI Galway and the student parking situation was unbelievably bad. They we're just about to bring in permit charges aswell.

This is a study week so there are hardly any students on campus. Wait until you see it next week before you judge the parking issue!

bat boy

leopoldbloom wrote: »

This is a study week so there are hardly any students on campus. Wait until you see it next week before you judge the parking issue!

Damn, I was thinking something didn't seem right.

djhaxman

wonton wrote: »

people actually do that? that has to be one of the best examples of lazyness and selfishness that you could find.

I couldn't care less tbh, if its raining or snowing and the car is outside I'll drive in, no hassle.

irish_goat

djhaxman wrote: »

I couldn't care less tbh, if its raining or snowing and the car is outside I'll drive in, no hassle.

Then you can pay up as well.

djhaxman

irish_goat wrote: »

Then you can pay up as well.

I fully intend to.

cian1500ww

Will you need the parking permit to park there after 6pm??

Eric Cartman

If its a private company running it then park anywhere you like , just bring a hacksaw , private clamping is a grey area in this country , and if somehow some unidentifiable person with a hood was to use a hacksaw (tescos for 3 euro) to cut the clamp off then walk away from the car just before you return with no hood up ....then theres f*ck all they can do

lordgoat

djhaxman wrote: »

I fully intend to.

Good to see laziness and the wonderful attitude of "i'll do what i want" is alive and well.

John

Eric Cartman wrote: »

If its a private company running it then park anywhere you like , just bring a hacksaw , private clamping is a grey area in this country , and if somehow some unidentifiable person with a hood was to use a hacksaw (tescos for 3 euro) to cut the clamp off then walk away from the car just before you return with no hood up ....then theres f*ck all they can do

I don't think it's been ever tested in court but I read an idea once about putting a sign on your car stating that it's private property and any items placed on the car which interfere with its operation will be removed at the owner's risk. Needless to say I'm not going to risk it.

Compton

It's a free country, let people drive in if they want.. 40 euro isnt exactly a lot of money for half a year, but the time it can save you waiting for the crappy public transport.. i think its worth it.

djhaxman

lordgoat wrote: »

Good to see laziness and the wonderful attitude of "i'll do what i want" is alive and well.

Do you have a car? I fail to see the point of paying tax and insurance and then leaving the thing sitting there, especially if it saves you a soaking. I'm as entitled to a parking spot as the next person, no matter where I live, particularly if we all end up paying.

lordgoat

djhaxman wrote: »

Do you have a car? I fail to see the point of paying tax and insurance and then leaving the thing sitting there, especially if it saves you a soaking. I'm as entitled to a parking spot as the next person, no matter where I live, particularly if we all end up paying.

Yep i have a care. I also pay tax and insurance but neither of these are for parking spaces in Maynooth college or anywhere else. You'll be giving your money to a private company, possibly run by my good self! Oh the irony is tasty in this thread.

My point was though, cos i feel the need is warranted here. If one lives closer to where one needs to be than someone else. Then it may be easier to use a non motorised mode of transport, due to the smaller distance needed to be traveled.

But ya, please do buy the parking pass!

Stitch09

in an ideal situation nobody would pay, but the college is limited by space and the fact that the town is introducing paid parking and manor mills is set up to whenever it wants, the college has to prevent every randomer who fancies stroll around maynooth from parking there. And the train station is a nightmare to park in whereas the college, a 5-10min stroll away is grand and relatively safe to park in and an attractive option for lots of commuters living on the outskirts of maynooth. It is also meant to encourage students in close proximity to the college to walk/cycle instead of bringing their cars in. the only options for increasing parking are multistories such as DCU (pay by the hour, bloody expensive to build and to use) or increasing the amount of car park space....eh where? at the cost of the pitches? no, i'd rather hold what little sports facilities we have on the north campus and St Pats is never going to let go of its pitches (why should it in fairness-part of making the campus what it is). And the land beside the canteen-zoned-and if the college ever gets there hands on it it will be for more student accomodation. If it succeeds in limiting to a small extent the amount of 'sure feck it we'll drive' cars and lets those who need to drive have a hope of finding one (i've literally driven for over an hour on some days tryin to find a bloody space) its worth it.
Do i want to or can i afford to pay-no, do i think its neccesary, yes, do i see anyother options, not easily implementable ones. If the permits were free it would be too hard to track cars with correct permits and stop people giving them to firends etc. Plus this way it might weed out a bit of the lazy day drivers and free up spaces for the rest of us-oh and staff vs student-not all staff can avail of all the staff parking, mostly they'll be paying permits as well. St pats can barricade of practically the whole south campus if they want,it wouldn't be nice or useful to the rest of us but they have their own students and members/staff to look after and don't have to facilitate nuim students parking everywhere they want to.
main point-its not been done solely to raise the coffers of a random clamping company, its been done to facilitate staff and students who need to drive having a better chance of parking
Rant over:D