(Car)pooling our resources

The Indiana Daily Student on Thursday published a story ("Carpool plan opens for A, C permit holders") describing IU Parking Operations' interesting new idea. The division wants faculty to carpool to school. The program will be available to anyone with an A or C permit and is intended for certain employees (you guys know who you are), graduate students, instructors and professors.\nSuch a plan might leave a few of us in the cold -- there's nothing the members of the editorial board like better than showing off our pimped-up rides. But ultimately, this is a step in the right direction. More parking means more parking, whether students are sharing rides or professors are sharing spots. \nBut wait -- there's more. \nMonday of last week, the IDS ran a different sort of parking story ("Dorm parking for freshmen on IUSA chopping block") that had a similar tone: This campus needs parking almost as much as it needs new ideas about parking facilitation. \nIf IU Student Association Vice President Andrew Lauck has his way, freshmen might be stuck out at the stadium lot, and dorm spaces behind Briscoe, McNutt and Foster quads would be freed up for students who commute to campus.\nNow this is a new idea. \nWe're not sure kicking freshmen to the Assembly Hall curb is necessarily the right way to go about it, but we support the process here. There are ideas floating around, discussion on the issue. There's a noticeable lack of "give us more spaces!" reactionary jibberish and a noticeable increase in new avenues. We commend both IU Parking Services and IUSA for considering new solutions. (We would encourage Lauck, however, to remember that freshmen are students, too.)\nDespite all of that, though, parking will always be an issue on this campus. Have you seen these streets lately? Half of them are brick! Ever tried to get across 10th Street at 1:15 p.m. on a Monday? Good luck. This isn't a commuter campus, but the scenery we're treated to each spring, summer and fall more than makes up for it.\nHere's where students come in. Gas is expensive and harmful to the environment. Parking spaces are expensive and nearly unattainable. But guess what? The buses are free! (Or, at least, you already paid for a pass.) It's still fall. Take a nice, brisk walk. Tell your parents you need your old BMX bike with pegs on it. Think creatively and avoid the morass that is this campus' parking infrastructure. Faculty, employees, this means you too.\nDespite any recent progress, an effective solution -- if it ever happens -- is a long way off. This campus just wasn't born that way. The best way to deal with it is to leave the car at home and join the rest of us, a team of people with similar goals: to learn and live and never leave a single moment wasted. \nUnless you happen to have a really sweet ride. In which case: Dude, our legs are tired. Any way we can get a lift?