Discussion

On the way up from Medecroft it started to rain so we gave up on the idea of heading into town. This is where we formed our geographical enquiry. We proposed that it would be ideal if we had a car so we could drive into town, however because there is a lack of parking on campus and an extortionate price for permits, this option was not available to us.

This initiated our choice in topic of enquiring about whether people believe there should be more parking on campus at a reasonable or affordable price.


We posed these arguements:

• Parking should be included in our tuition fees

or

• Parking should be available at a low cost

and

• a suitable amount of parking spaces to accommodate students and staff should be provided.

We created these arguements due to the fact that there are 6500 students, 700 staff members but only 435 car parking spaces on campus. Not only is there limited parking but the price of permits are unreasonable for both staff and students.

Evidence

Here is some of the parking available for staff members. However as you can see from the second picture below, these spaces are reserved for members for specific times only.

This sign is situated at Queens Road Student Village. The problem with this parking facility is that there are limited spaces that are generally only available to students between 4pm and 8am as staff occupy these spaces during the day. However After speaking to some lectures, it is clear that even staff struggle to get a parking space to carry out their daily tasks at the University.

Hospital car parking is available but it is costly and inconsiderate to staff, patients and visitors at the hospital if university member take advantage of this multi-storey.

As you can see from this image to the right, there is the option to pay by phone daily. However you are still not guaranteed a space, which results in a waste time and effort driving to the University to find there are no spaces available so have to go else where.

This map highlights the limited spaces available on campus.

Comparison-other university parking policies

Parking at Bournemouth University:

• You need to meet a criteria.
• You need to live so many miles away
• Need to be on a part-time course or have a child under 12
• Or have a medical reason or a disability
• It is £55.50 a year for a full time student or £27.50 for part time students.

Parking at Southampton University

• You need to be registered as a student
• There are permits available for £10 a year
• You need a Uni computing account
• No first year students allowed-only exceptional circumstances
• Only applies to certain campuses
• You also get a free uni link pass providing buses all around the city

 

Survey

Questions we asked:

To those who commute:
1. How do you travel to uni and home?
2. How much do you spend daily on travel?
3. Does it inconvience you that there is no affordable parking on campus?

To those who live in Winchester:
1. How do you travel between your term time address and home?
2. How regularly do you go home?
3. Would you go home more often if parking was available on campus?
4. How much does it cost to go home?

Here are the results for some of the questions:

 

We can conclude from these results that parking on campus would be beneficial!

 

 

Conclusion

Overall we have found that people spend alot of money travelling to university and from university to home because of having to use public transport for example expensive train fares. It would be beneficial for the students, staff and visitors if the unversity provided more spaces for a cheaper cost if not for free, taking into consideration that we already pay a considerable amount in tuition fees and accomodation.