Not a smooth ride for carpoolers at NSCC

NSCC Waterfront Campus is all out of free carpool parking passes for students

Cars fill up the allotted carpool parking spaces at the NSCC Waterfront campus (Photo: Katherine Hudson)

Nova Scotia Community College’s Waterfront Campus in Dartmouth is not offering any more carpool passes to its students. The campus allocated 126 passes this past term and had to cut that amount to 104 for the winter semester, says Dan McNeil, a campus security guard.

“That last number is based on the number of spots actually available,” he says.

Catherine MacLean, principal of the Waterfront Campus, acknowledges that more carpool passes were issued last term than there were parking spots.

“We built a buffer since we were still establishing the scheduling peak periods. This year, we gave out as many (passes) as there were spots… All parking passes from last term were withdrawn in order to give everyone a chance,” MacLean says. Sixty-one students from last semester were able to keep their carpool parking passes.

“We are thrilled that carpooling has been so successful. We encourage staff and students to carpool.”

The NSCC campus has an environmentally friendly mandate that can be seen through many of its facilities as well as the building’s sustainable design. It is also the only academic institution in Halifax to offer free carpool passes to its students.

To acquire a pass, a student driver and one other passenger can sign up with their student IDs at the security desk. McNeil says a driver needed to have at least two other co-signers during the last school year.

“I wish it were still like that. Students sometimes just get a friend to sign up with them so they can get a free pass.”

Today, a hand-written sign hangs from the desk announcing there are no more passes. McNeil says he has seen many unhappy students wanting a carpool pass when none are available.

“The students are very angry”

Shauna Burns and Erinne Grisword are first-year nursing students at NSCC. They were just accepted to the program in December.

“It sucks for people who start in January. There are only so many carpool passes,” Burns says.

“We carpool with three or four people usually, but didn’t get passes. They should have alotted passes for January students,” Grisword says.

Joline Head, a first-year student in the Medical Lab Techonology program, was lucky enough to get a carpool pass this semester.

“They were gone by lunchtime on the first day,” she says. “There are other people in my class that tried to get them. I definitely think they should have more spaces because the parking they have set up for students is terrible.”

There is an extension to the NSCC Waterfront parking lot about 1 km away at the Atlantic Street lot behind the Tim Horton’s. There are 214 parking spaces and an NSCC-run shuttle bus transports students from the lot to the front entrance of the school. It runs about every 10 minutes during the school day.

“They have a shelter down there, but you can't actually stay in the shelter while waiting for the bus to come because you have to wait in line to get the bus,” Head says. “If (you don’t wait) it would be full because it only takes 20 people, and at 8 a.m. there is quite a few people waiting there. Then when it’s full you either walk or wait 10-15 minutes in the freezing cold.”

Supply and Demand

There are only 300 parking spaces on the college campus for the 1,800 full-time and 2,500-part-time students, faculty and staff. Students must pay for the bus or ferry services since NSCC does not participate in the Metro Transit’s U-Pass program, which offers student bus passes through tuition fees. Since the NSCC Waterfront Campus is not very accessible by foot, students think more space needs to be available for parking.

The principal of the Waterfront Campus says she hopes to expand the number of carpool parking spaces in the near future.

“We are investigating how to create more spots. It’s in the beginning stages. We’re looking at numbers. We’re trying not to be discouraged,” MacLean says.

“We can’t accommodate them all. We’re doing the best we can.”

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