OPED: Veterans Memorial parking lot fails to fulfill needs

By Laura Bock and Cassie Archer,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

It’s 8:30 a.m. before second period. A few cars are weaving through the crowded rows in the Veterans Memorial parking lot, looking desperately for an empty spot. They will not find one.

Instead, they will try to park on the street and in doing so risk getting a ticket, or look in other lots for parking, some of which are private.

And next week, staff will begin ticketing students parking in staff lots.

There is an obvious, but not new, problem with the parking lots at Davis High. Halfway through first period, the parking lot is nearly full, and students without a first period are often left without a spot.

For students who are driving, parking spots are extremely necessary. While students may not necessarily have the right to a spot, there is still a demand for them.

Now, people could argue that students don’t have the right to a parking spot, and that students should use alternative ways to get to school, such as carpooling, biking and taking the bus. However, we need to keep in mind that these methods don’t necessarily work for everybody.

For instance, some people don’t live within biking distance of the school, newly permitted drivers can’t legally drive other people and for some parents, it’s difficult to take time out of their work schedules to drive their children to and from school.

While these alternative methods could cut down on the amount of cars parking in the lots, it is doubtful that any long-term effects would amount from it.

Instead, we need long-term changes. We need to take into account that DHS students are not the only ones who use the IPAB parking lot; other Davis citizens use it for access to the tennis courts, community pool, sports games and the Veterans Memorial Center. If we opened up currently unused staff parking spots to students, this could potentially begin to solve the problem without physically expanding the parking lot.

However, if the need arises to physically expand the Veterans Memorial Parking lot, it wouldn’t just benefit students; it would also benefit other citizens.

Click below to see a time-lapse video of the parking lot filling up before school.