The Associate Director and all his glory....

Today I got the opportunity to sit down and speak to the assistant director of Parking and Transportation Ignacio Carrillo. He has been working at Cal State Long Beach for almost 20 years now and has loved every minute of it.

Ignacio is in charge of handling the customer service aspect of parking such as dealing with the visitor information booth and the sales of daily parking permits as well as overseeing the sales of student and employee parking permits. On top of that he oversees the Campus Connection Shuttles and the employee rideshare program.

Needless to say Ignacio is kept pretty busy, and with all the projects parking services are taking on, things will only get more hectic for him.

Stay tuned for any updates on parking services.., see ya next week

Is that a tree I see?

If you park in parking lots 1,9, 14, and 2o you may have seen or better yet drove over a tree root or two. It is a problem the parking and transportation department is planing on fixing these during the Winter and Summer 08 breaks.

The problem is that tree roots from the trees in the area are pushing through the asphalt and causing hazards for pedestrians and cars alike. The plan is to re-pave the lots to take care of the roots.

For a map of the parking lots in question click here.

So next time you are in one of the lots in question, make sure a tree doesn't branch out and get ya.

Fees to increase.... again

According to Ignacio Carrillo, the associate director of parking, the parking and transportation department is planning to build another parking structure over lot 11a in the 2008 academic year. The structure is said to coat an estimated $24 million dollars, and will add 914 parking spaces to the CSULB parking community.

It is said that this parking structure will also be used for the new Recreation and Wellness Center that is planned to begin construction sometime next year.

I don't know about you guys, but every time there is construction, parking always seems to be a mess, as a student about to graduate I am sure glad I don't have that to look forward to.

Do the shuttles really work???

If you guys don't remember , I hired a secret someone to investigate if the shuttles on campus really work. For the past six weeks my agent has rode the bus every day at numerous times in the day and timed their travel time. Here is what they found.

Week 1: total travel time: 9 am: 14.5 min
total travel time: 3 pm: 15.2 min

Week 2: Total travel time: 9am : 12 min
Total travel time: 3pm: 10 min

Week 3: Total travel time: 9am: 11 min
Total travel time: 3pm: 10 min

Week 4: Total travel time 9am: 10 min
Total travel time 3pm: 10 min

Week 5: Total travel time 9am: 7 min
Total travel time 3pm: 10 min

If you look, towards the beginning of the semester, the time it took on the shuttle was a little longer but it got shorter as the semester moved on. On week 5 i parked in the same lot as my private investigator ( The lot by the Indian Burial Grounds) and instead of taking the shuttle I booked it to upper campus ( meeting place was the PSY building) to see who would make it there before me. My PI arrived about 5 min ahead of me, (and dry as a whistle, I on the other hand was soaked in sweat) So I guess that shows, the shuttles really do work.

It was not all a smooth ride however. My PI did face some struggles. During week 2 on her am drive, the first bus that drove by, opened her bus doors and said, "Sorry guys I need to go to the bathroom, there should be another bus here shortly."

* For sake of fairness, the PI took the same route each week and parked in the same lot.