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May 08, 2009, 07:30 AM ET
After Striving Not to Drive, U. of New Mexico Will Start Building 2 More Garages
An old adage says that nothing preoccupies a college president like parking problems (tennis-court time was the No. 2 worry back in the day, if memory serves). That may explain why the University of New Mexico will start construction on two new parking structures later this month, just days after taking part in a citywide “Strive Not to Drive” week geared to mass transit and National Bike to Work Day, which is May 15 this year.
The campaign to get Albuquerque residents out of their cars next week includes pledge cards and a publicity effort. The university is throwing in an extra attraction for employees: The department with the most employees signing pledge cards will be awarded a departmental membership in the car-sharing service Zipcar, which keeps four vehicles on the university campus. The university notes that car sharing is a boon for people who commute to work by bus or bike but need a car to get to an off-campus meeting or run an errand during the day.
Persuading employees to leave their cars at home cuts down on the university’s overall carbon-emissions tallies and benefits the environment, but financially the big savings come in reducing demand for parking, which is costly to construct, brings vehicles into what might otherwise be a pedestrian precinct, and takes space that planners would probably rather use for some other purpose, like a new academic building or a landscaped quadrangle. No such luck on the big New Mexico campus, though — the university says it has more than 900 faculty and staff members on the waiting list for parking close to their offices.
The two new parking structures will help meet that demand, as well as demand for parking by campus visitors. “UNM is the single largest destination in New Mexico — serving over 30,000 students, staff, faculty, and visitors daily,” a university news release notes. The new parking structures will, however, include bike-parking areas and “the ability to harness solar energy to power the structure’s lighting.”
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