By It’s the fourth week into the semester and parking is still a struggle for many students. Cal State Long Beach’s Parking and Transportation Services responded this week by opening overflow parking off campus at the nearby Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church on East Colorado Street.
This past weekend, students with parking passes were sent an email alerting them about the additional parking and off-campus shuttle services running from Monday to Thursday.
The shuttle passes by every 20 minutes. It goes down Bellflower Boulevard and turns left onto Colorado Street, taking about eight minutes to get to the church from campus.
“I was worried that the shuttle doesn’t run as often and I was worried I would miss it,” said third year child development major Kelsey Turk. “And then I was 30 minutes early to class.”
According to the on-site shuttle driver, on Monday, 53 people utilized the new shuttle route and by Tuesday the amount of riders almost doubled.
For students who take an hour or longer to commute, finding a parking space can be just as long as the ride to school.
“It’s really convenient because I commute from Huntington Beach and I leave my house an hour and 30 minutes before [class],” Turk said. “It takes me 30 minutes to get here and a whole hour to find parking and sometimes I’m still late.”
Students who work before class need time to find parking, but some only have a small window of time after their shift and before class.
“It usually takes me over an hour to find parking and I come from work so I don’t really have over an hour to look for parking,” Jennifer Hicks said, a third year interior design major at CSULB.
Hicks hopes that the overflow parking will be available after this week and said that she will call the Parking and Transportation Department to ask them to keep it.
Third year human resources major Jack Corbin said the overflow parking has been easier to deal with compared to his experiences parking on campus.
“Getting out of the parking structure after class is hell,” Corbin said.
The parking lot fills up early and seems like more students are taking classes at the same time than there are parking spots available.
“If there’s not enough parking passes for all the students then you shouldn’t sell them,” Turk said.
The last shuttle goes back to the church at 6:45 p.m., so students taking night classes will have to come back and move their cars before then.
“The latest class I have starts at 6:30 and gets out at 7:45,” Hicks said. “I go home and come back and there’s plenty of parking by that time.”
