George Mason University had 30,714 students enrolled as of fall 2008. According to the Digest of Educational Statistics in the Washington DC metropolitan area, George Mason ranks second largest university-by-population behind the University of Maryland College Park. George Mason is ranked third largest university in the state of Virginia, just hundreds behind both Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University. Out of all the large universities in Virginia however, George Mason is the only one with a reputation of being a commuter school. Being such a large university, combined with having the label of commuter school, all while being in Northern Virginia, together are characteristics possible of severely straining a community.

        George Mason has the responsibility of dedicating funds, planning, space, etc. to accommodate commuting students. The reasons are obvious. “Washington DC is often cited as having some of the worst traffic congestion in the United States…beyond the city and inner suburbs, transit operations are fairly limited and public transportation accounts for just 3 percent of all trips in the region as a whole.” (Nelson, 2007, p. 236). There is no doubt that the 30,000 plus students enrolled contribute to this statistic. Close to 5,000 of these enrolled students live on campus. Out of the 25,000 left a small number carpool, or take public transportation. The state and counties provides access though public transportation such as the Metro Bus, the Cue Bus, ART Bus and the PRTC Bus. Mason is even accessible through different bike paths. Even with these factors taken into account, a large portion of students are still commuting into school every day. “86% of college students say owning a car is crucial. That's up from 77 percent two decades ago.” (Naughton, 2005, p. 60). In this day and age cars are a necessity to most college students. George Mason realizes this and has taken action in order to provide parking for students. They have done so in many different ways. They introduced shuttle buses that bring students in from the field house or the west parking lot. These lots are quite a distance from campus therefore it really is not an option for most students. “In a vicious cycle, dependence on driving and the availability of parking cause campus facilities to be dispersed beyond reasonable walking distances. As a result, the need for more roads and more parking continually escalates…When institutions run out of room for surface parking, they build garages.” (Kenney, 2004, p. B22). West Lot is only really used by freshmen who live on campus because they are forced to park out there. Other than that the lot is pretty much deserted. Students rather not be bothered having to take a shuttle into campus. The reason being because it takes at least 20 minutes to get to campus using the shuttle and the fact that one has to get to school that much earlier in order to make it to class on time. Students are willing to pay more in order to park closer to campus. George Mason offers two parking decks as well as a bunch of general lots all which are within walking distance to the center of campus.

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        We wanted to look into the question of where the majority of George Mason students that park on campus are coming from.  We began our research by heading over to George Mason’s Parking Services. Although not really confident that we were going to be able to get data from them being that they work under contracted management we headed over anyways and talked to the Director, Josh Cantor. He was initially hesitant being that it was still the first week of class meaning it’s when they’re busiest. We were fortunately able to get data regarding every parking permit sold this ...

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