Students Feel Unsafe Parking at Irwin Street

    While several positive steps have been taken to improve university parking, many students, particularly freshmen, feel there are safety issues in regard to parking at the Irwin Street lot that need to be addressed. 
    They are concerned with the 10 to 15 minute walk they must make back to the residence halls along West Hancock Street at night after they park.
     Many freshmen girls, especially residents of Adams Hall, which is the furthest from the Irwin Street lot, say they are very scared at night. 
    Freshmen resident Emily Dickerson said, “Because of the distance and the surroundings, it’s pretty scary and overwhelming walking back alone or with a friend.  Especially at night when the lights are out and the shuttle stops, walking back makes me feel very apprehensive.”
    The Irwin Street lot was largely unused in the previous years until recent change in university parking plans made it the designated place for freshmen to park.  This alleviates much of the congestion in the parking around the residence halls and has been very effective thus far. 
    However, the distance of the lot to the residence halls has been a reason for concern among those freshmen who park there.  It is a good 10 minute walk, which is a long way to go on a hot day, but even longer when it is nighttime and difficult to clearly see anything around, or even in front of you.
     The main concern for the students is the lighting which has yet to been repaired or installed.  There are numerous street lights either out or non-existent along West Hancock Street, particularly near the rail road tracks intersection.  Students must walk by this intersection when coming from their cars. 
    Greg Brown, Manager of University Parking and Transportation said, “Georgia College has worked with the city of Milledgeville to put in a work order in order to install, or repair street lights on Montgomery where needed.”
    Brown also said other measures are being taken to increase the security of the Irwin Street lot such as installing electronic gates activated by bobcat cards. In addition, he mentioned that public safety regularly patrols the area around the residence halls, and that there is also an officer on duty from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at the Irwin Street lot.     
    While a gate or an officer will maintain the security of the lot itself, it fails to ensure the safety of the students in their trek to their residence halls, which is the main reason for the anxiety of many students.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 22 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry