Editorial: New parking permits put student drivers in a bind

Editorial:

Alameda County has approved a plan that would make permits a requirement to park on San Miguel Avenue, Garrison Avenue, Lux Avenue, and Santa Maria Avenue. The decision was made by county officials based on a petition by the residents of these streets, who dislike the congestion caused by the parked cars of CVHS students. The Olympian’s opposition to this plan is unanimous.

While the plan might be helpful to the residents of the selected streets, the institution of the new parking permits is simply unfair to high school students who currently park there.

There are some benefits in this plan: the residents of the affected streets would not have to deal with as many students, and it could also possibly encourage students who park there to carpool, bike or even walk to school. However, these benefits do not even come close to offsetting the disadvantages of the plan.

CVHS has limited parking space, and if this plan takes effect, The Olympian has a simple question: where are students supposed to park? Wouldn’t the students pushed out of the included streets simply park somewhere else and cause parking problems there? In addition, there is also the possibility that the parking permits that allow students to park in school parking lots, which are limited in number, would increase in price as a result of the higher demand that would inevitably result from not being able to park on the selected streets.

The Olympian prefers that the plan never come into effect. However, because the plan has already been approved, we propose that the permits be made available for student purchase. That way, the permits could raise money and keep excess students from parking on the affected streets.

As long as the permits are not made more expensive than the ones sold by the school, the residents and high school students would both be able to benefit from the plan.

Despite the benefits that the permit plan gives the residents of the affected streets, The Olympian strongly opposes it. If the plan must be put into place, then perhaps a compromise of sorts could be reached, and both the residents and the students could benefit. However, without this compromise, all the plan does is shift the problem of over-parking somewhere else.