EDITORIAL: Tickets, not towing
As strange as the phrase "I swear I parked my car here next to this yellow curb" sounds, it has been a common one this semester. A total of 45 cars were towed in the first 36 days of classes - a rate of five cars every four days.
So why is security cracking down on illegal parking this semester? Probably because they can. At any given moment during peak hours for classes, the circle drive is lined with cars, even though there is only space for 10 in the middle.
"The way I see it, I pay to come to school here and I should park where ever I want," said one 20-year-old sophomore from Peru. She said she usually tries to park in the circle, but is often forced to park legally and walk from the distant parking lots because all of the illegal spots in the circle are taken.
If laws are being violated, of course, something should be done about it. To tow cars seems punitive, but to issue parking tickets would be corrective. Towing is unnecessarily expensive and time-consuming. It won't necessarily prevent students from parking illegally in the future. It's nothing more than a roll of the dice to see if one student's car happens to be the one that gets towed. Consistency would be more likely to prevent students from breaking parking laws than severity. Parking tickets are easier to issue on a regular basis and could punish more violators. Renegade students who refuse to pay could be treated the same way students with outstanding balances are treated in the Office of Admissions and Records or Jacobs Library.
That means no signing up for classes, checking out library books or sending transcripts until the fines are paid.
As a recent survey showed, the students would certainly favor getting fined rather than towed. Most police departments ticket parking offenders before towing them. It's likely that the only group to oppose switching to parking tickets would be the two-truck operators.