No parking...ok, much less parking

So who is the idiot who decided to close off two rows in the parking lot this morning without any advance notice? How can anyone possibly think that closing off 20 percent of the parking lot – you know, the one that is completely full every single day (well, Monday through Thursday anyway) of the school year – and not giving students any advance warning is a good idea? No one expects the school to magically solve the parking crisis but it might be nice if the school didn’t purposefully do things to make it worse.

And by the way, did you see this article about the new parking shuttles? The undergraduate student newspaper here is a little lacking in basic journalism skills. Well, sure, the new shuttles look nice. But NOBODY CARES WHAT THE SHUTTLES LOOK LIKE. Students just want the shuttles to run on time, more frequently and at peak times. Maybe the article could have covered those important details instead of being written like a press release.

What the hell does this quote from Chuck McConnell, director of parking and transportation services, mean:

"Essentially the service will remain the same, but we'll be able to carry many more passengers,"

I think it means this: the service will be just as poorly run, but when the shuttles do run – at infrequent intervals – more people can be on the shuttles? Ok, I see. This makes sense. Where will these people come from? Read on.

Then there’s this gem from the article:

The total ridership at the end of 2005 was more than 855,000 passengers and with the new additions, the numbers are projected to significantly increase.

Huh? More people will be riding the shuttle because of the new busses? That does not make sense. Let’s say you see the shuttles and you think to yourself, ‘wow, those look really nice, much nicer than the hold crummy looking shuttles.’ Are you then going to purposely park farther from campus so you can ride the shuttle? Um, no. I guess maybe one person out of the 855,000 who rode the shuttles last year did that but it’s unlikely…