We have all been told of stranger danger, however would a student be more trusting to another student? The carpool at UOW has a rule of three or more people in a car to be allowed in the car park. This brings up the issue of people asking other students to take a ride in their car when they are near or in the universitry grounds to the carpool car park. New students be aware of these people. While this may seem like a good idea students can be heavily punished if caught.
The carpool was recently moved from the multi story car park to the Western. This makes it easier to access but also easier for people to sneak in using this technique to get a free park. There is also a new entrance at Robinson Road which is again an issue.
"Our policy is that students have to drive into the entrance of UOW with three or more people in their car to be able to get into the carpool. If this is not the case then action is taken against them" said Tony Figgieri, Car Park Manager "If we see this sort of behavior students will be punished usually with a ban for the rest of session."
Tony says the way they police this issue is if they see it with "the naked eye." "If a witness is to report something like this happening, we will tell that person that we have to see it ourselves due to the likeliness of false information. We have 24 hour surveillance on all the car parks which makes it easier to catch these students. Once caught we take their registration details and if they persist they go on a wanted list, this wanted list is then posted in all our parking offices including the carpooling one."
People from the wanted list sometimes continue to break the rules. " I have had instances where some people from the wanted list continue to try and park in the carpool or pick people up however only in extreme cases are the police called" said Tony.
Sites like carpoolworld.com are sponsored by the university to help students to find other students in their areas that they could carpool with to university. New students should be aware however that these sites are outside UOW control, therefore the university takes no responsibility.
New students here are some tips for you to avoid risking your safety:
1 make sure you walk with students/friends wherever possible
2 when using the carpool make sure you are entering the university with three or more people in the car
3 don't decide to pick up a friend or another student to get free parking while at the university
4 be aware of the cameras filming the car parks
5 abide by the rules of parking at the university
6 follow the signs and be aware of any changes to parking conditions
7 be careful when using the sites for carpooling
"My advice to new students would be to use the carpooling service because as long as you abide by the rules its a great advantage to you."said Tony. "I think that the UOW carpool has been successful because it limits traffic on the roads, provides 352 more parking spaces and has had good feedback from students and transport managers."
For more information please go to
http://www.carpoolworld.com/
http://www.uow.edu.au/parking/students/UOW002245.html
http://www.secureparking.com.au/
No comments:
Post a Comment