Inquiring Minds: You can spare a minute for courtesy in parking

There is a parking problem on this campus. And it is not that there are too few spaces, because little can be done about that. It’s that people can’t park in the spaces we have.

Almost every day, there are vehicles parked inappropriately in the upper and lower McInnis lots. Some vehicles straddle two parking spots. Others are parked crooked. Still others are parked on the yellow line separating the parking spaces.

And surprisingly often, minor accidents occur, usually involving one car parked and one car moving. While these accidents may not be life-threatening, they are still an incovenience, costing those involved both time and money.

This is especially a problem in the lower McInnis parking lot. The parking spaces in the upper McInnis parking lot are about 115 inches wide, or nine feet seven inches, but the lower McInnis lot has parking spaces averaging only 100 inches wide, or eight and a half feet.

When a 78-inch wide vehicle is parked in one of these smaller spaces, no matter how well it’s done, it is difficult for either of the car’s neighbors to be parked within their own lines. This sets off a chain reaction of poorly parked cars, and sometimes eliminates a parking spot or two.

It’s tempting, when late to class, just to pull in and leave the car crooked. It can be embarrassing to have to pull back out of the space and straighten the car out. But when parking is as crowded as it is at Eastern, there’s truly no excuse. The driver who pulls into the next parking space will probably be even later to class than you are, so she shouldn’t have to do it in a space six inches smaller than yours was.

These problems can be avoided if we all practice a little more courtesy in how we park.

Courtesy means backing the car out and pulling it back in until it’s straight. It means parking a wide car or SUV in the upper McInnis lot. Reparking the car or walking down from the upper McInnis lot should only take a minute, and anybody can spare a minute.

Be nice to everyone, and take a minute to park like you should.

Inquiring Minds is the collective opinion of the editorial staff and not necessarily representative of the entire staff. It is written by the managing editor and the editor-in-chief.