"There's no place to park!"
Really?
Spaces may be few in areas closest to the center of campus at the most densely scheduled class times, but there's plenty of parking available elsewhere. Space counts, which are taken regularly, prove that UNC Charlotte has sufficient parking for visitors, faculty, staff, and students. Students are the population who most heavily use parking and for whom most of the parking is designated. The most recent space counts in student parking areas show an average of 29% of parking sits empty, even at peak scheduled class times.
Here are the numbers for Spring 2014, Monday - Thursday.* Italicized rows are areas that tend to fill at peak class times. Bold entries have the most parking to spare.
| Location | Total Available | Unoccupied 10:00 AM | Unoccupied 12:00 PM | Unoccupied 2:00 PM | Unoccupied 4:00 PM | Unoccupied 6:00 PM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lot 26 (at FM/Police Bldg) | 86 | 10 | 14 | 6 | 28 | 65 |
| North Deck | 1171 | 953 | 928 | 928 | 945 | 988 |
| Lot 25 (across from Witherspoon) | 497 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 43 | 60 |
| Lot 19 (by Union Deck) | 261 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 56 | 49 |
| Lot 18 (by Union Deck) | 94 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 29 | 49 |
| Union Deck | 682 | 128 | 72 | 20 | 221 | 354 |
| CRI Deck 1 | 1343 | 1148 | 1052 | 1103 | 1151 | 1267 |
| CRI Lot 2 | 128 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 42 | 99 |
| Lot 23 (CRI by stadium) | 174 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 27 | 87 |
| Lot 14 (by Tennis complex) | 27 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 12 |
| West Deck | 760 | 175 | 45 | 54 | 266 | 472 |
| Lot 7A (Memorial Hall) | 37 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 33 |
| Lot 7 (behind Cone Deck) | 123 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 23 |
| Lot 101 Foundation Bldg. | 60 | 20 | 30 | 33 | 39 | 49 |
| South Village Deck | 1101 | 599 | 583 | 619 | 645 | 751 |
| Lot 8 (adjacent to South Village Deck) | 238 | 3 | 11 | 13 | 35 | 57 |
| Lot 8A (by RDH) | 60 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Moore/Sanford U | 51 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lot 16 (Oak, Pine, Maple, Elm) | 233 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 8 |
| Lot 20 (behind Witherspoon) | 105 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Lot 21 (next to Witherspoon) | 134 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Mary Alex (on street) | 42 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Lot 12 (NE corner Mary Alex & Cameron) | 84 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 28 |
| Lot 13 (Hawthorn) | 140 | 27 | 29 | 33 | 39 | 42 |
| Greek Village | 324 | 134 | 144 | 146 | 165 | 178 |
| Lot 6 (off Martin Village Rd.) | 565 | 537 | 513 | 502 | 537 | 550 |
| Lot 5 (Van Landingham Rd.) | 582 | 146 | 38 | 118 | 241 | 331 |
| Lot 5A (Van Landingham) | 257 | 211 | 132 | 130 | 192 | 230 |
| Lot 4A (Van Landingham at John Kirk) | 128 | 46 | 14 | 28 | 70 | 102 |
| East Deck 3 | 804 | 296 | 156 | 234 | 422 | 536 |
| East Deck 2 | 539 | 3 | 18 | 23 | 101 | 152 |
| TOTAL | 10830 | 3678 | 3106 | 3284 | 4576 | 5722 |
The take-away for Commuters:
- Everyone wants to park as close as they can to their class and most classes are scheduled from about 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Therefore, more students are trying to park in the same places at the same time. Your competition is stiff.
- Take a look at the Commuter parking areas in bold. Did you know that every one of them has a shuttle stop?
- For just one day, try parking in Lot 6, North Deck or South Village Deck. The Red Line runs two buses from Lot 6 through the center of campus via the Student Union and out to the CRI campus. You can catch the Green Line from North Deck and both the Yellow and Green Lines from South Village Deck. (There's even a mobile web site and app that shows you where the shuttle is and when it will get to your stop.) It may seem odd to park so far away from your familiar, preferred spots, but just do it ONCE. After you see how easy it is to get from where you've parked to where you're going, it won't be nearly as annoying to park there are days when your favorite parking is full.
- There's NO REASON to park illegally in a full lot or deck and risk getting a citation and there's NO REASON to circle a deck until you miss class.
- There are no plans to take down the Belk Tower to put up a 20-story parking deck. Future parking facilities will continue to follow the campus master plan and be placed toward the margins of campus.
Incentive to try parking at one of the least-used areas
The first ten permit-holding Commuters who park in one of the bold areas and Tweet a selfie of their car parked there, mention @unccpats and/or use hashtag #Iparkedfar, will win a deck voucher for one day of free visitor parking at Visitor deck. (Visitor deck areas are at Cone, East 1, Union, CRI 1 and South Village). That might be really nice to have for that day when you're running late.
*Counts taken over a two week period of normal class schedule (no holiday/break).