Being a student at Queens University of Charlotte during the time of the remodeling has become a great experience. I have seen the new science building, bits and pieces of the Levine Center and the South dorm/parking deck. I have given Queens a lot of credit because of all the new surroundings on the campus, until they decided to put speed bumps in the parking deck. The speed bumps they put on the road heading to the parking deck were already enough. I understand speed bumps are supposed to slow cars down but the speed bumps in the parking deck and heading towards the parking deck are basically all metal. These metal speed bumps cause damage to my vehicle every time I go over one. I feel like if I’m not going two miles per hour over these speed bumps my car will literally fall apart. If I am going anything above that my whole car shakes and being a person that takes care of their belongings, I never will…ANYMORE. 
I don’t speed over these metal speed bumps anymore but most Queens’s students still do. The fact that speed bumps are in the parking deck makes them mad. I have heard many students talking about how hard they are and why they have speed bumps basically in the middle of parking spaces. Too park in parking spots and back out of parking spots near speed bumps is a horrible feeling. Speed bumps have their pros and cons but in this situation I feel like they should be taken away. Students are going to speed around the corners no matter what and I know that’s the main reason for these speed bumps in the parking deck. Queens University of Charlotte has made some good decisions but placing speed bumps in the deck was a horrible decision.
Antonio Stabler
I 100% agree with your dislike of the speed bumps in the parking deck. If they were normal speed bumps then it wouldn't be as bad but these bumps are the worst. It takes my roommate 3 minutes to get out of the parking deck from the 4th floor because he has to go over the speed bumps so slow. He values his car alot and since the speed bumps can be so harmful to the car, he has to take extra precaution when going over the bumps to make sure they do not harm his car. In the long run I think people will just have to get used to these speed bumps and the dislike for them will die down.
ReplyDeleteTim Cloud
I would have to agree with the speed bumps issue. I have never been a fan of speed bumps anywhere because I just believe that people speed in between them anyway. But the other reason is because they are more liable to cause harm to your cars undercarriage. In fact, last year, I had to replace my entire suspension and the cause was determined to be excessive use of speed bumps. That obviously did not help my support of the speed bumps not just in the parking garage, but everywhere on campus.
ReplyDeleteQueen's does do a lot of good on campus as far as developments go. But I would go as far to say that that the entire parking situation, not just the speed bumps is the problem. If you live off campus, the amount of space for you too park is just sad. You are not aloud to park in either garage, as one is for staff, and the other is for on campus students. With that, they continue to take away the very few spots around campus and reserve them for staff members. It just doesn't make much sense to me and I believe it is something Queen's needs to fix.
Mike Reed
Antonio, I would have to agree with all of what you said. The bumps mess up your cars alignment and people fly over them anyway. The school was way too hasty in putting them in. Either they should have built them in when they built the deck or put mirrors on the corners so people can see if a car is coming.
ReplyDeleteI cannot begin to explain how much I dislike the speed bumps. When we returned from Thanksgiving break and saw they had put them up in the parking deck as well, I was not happy. Now I do have a bigger car so the bottom of my car isn't running against the floor when I drive, but I am not known to be the slowest driver. i have a bad tendency to leave late when I am supposed to be places and you can usually see me flying out of the parking deck on any giving day. I am however not like the awful drivers who have lead us to have these awful things put in. I stay on my side of the deck and don't whip around corners. To the people who ran into PARKED cars, please learn to drive and then maybe we wont have to deal with these god awful speed bumps in the deck next year.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Yocum
I agree with you as well. The speed bumps are extremely annoying. Not only that, but in my little civic, driving over them feels like I'm about to take out the entire bottom of my car. It messes up the alignment of the wheels too. I feel like I have to come to a complete stop before driving over them, and even then I still feel like they are be harmful to my car. If they really felt the need for speed bumps in the parking deck, I wish they would've put normal ones in. I think the easier solution would have been to put mirrors in the parking deck, like we had in the old one, because I feel like the main problem isn't the speeding through the parking deck, but the fact that you can't see around the corner when another car is coming.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I also think that my car shakes less the faster I go over the speed bumps which is just crazy but it works. Therefore these speed bumps are pointless. They are causing so much damage to my car too. I had to get new tires, and even with the new tires I still find myself constantly filling them up with air. The speed bumps are the dumbest thing to ever happen to queens, with the exception of the people that put them there.
ReplyDelete-Anna
The speed bumps are extremely annoying but unfortunately i think they are probably for the best. The parking deck is extremely tight, especially around those corners and you never really know what could happen. I feel like they could have made a better solution however. I think they should have placed those giant circle mirrors on all corners of the parking deck so people traveling both up and down the deck can see who and what is around the corner. They may be annoying but I think for now they add a little more safety to that over crowded tower that some people play bumper cars in. Some people need to learn to drive.....just sayin!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you. I hate these speed bumps more than anything. As a car enthusiast and as someone who also takes care of their belonging this is well out of hand. This particular subject is a sour one in my personal book. I think we as students need to rise to take action and fix this problem! This is a great article and I really enjoy this post and thank you for stepping up and speaking out about your concerns!!
ReplyDeleteWell Done!
The speed bumps are the absolute worst!!! I feel like they are literally tearing my car apart every time I drive over them, but with the way that some people drive in the parking deck I think they are very much needed. I've seen on so many different occasions where students come flying in one direction and one from another and miss each other by the skin of their teeth! If we had safer drivers we wouldn't be forced with the struggles of these annoying bumps, so get it together people!!!!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your post. When I was on Thanksgiving break and heard from friends that there were speed bumps in the parking deck, I knew that there were going to be issues. Now I don't mind going over gentle, sloping speed bumps, such as the ones in Myers Park; however, those metal/plastic ones that lead up to and are in the parking deck are ridiculous. I understand the point of wanting to slow drivers down for other people's safety, but those speed bumps can do a lot of damage. It's very easy for something like that to mess up a car's alignment, and so I personally think that any bills to fix my vehicle should just be sent to Queens directly (Should I have them bill the admissions office? They can subtract the damage costs of my car directly from my tuition.) I know that people drive fast and whip around the corners of the parking deck unsafely, but putting speed bumps won't stop those individuals. Also, let's be honest here: the space for turns on each level in the deck aren't that wide anyway, and I feel that there is a significant percentage of students who can't drive/park at all. If drivers go slowly and safely when going through the parking deck and turning corners, there isn't a problem at all. There should be a level of respect among drivers here on campus, and maybe instead of punishing us with these awful speed bumps, Queens should take measures to focus on the people who can't drive to save their lives or don't care enough to slow down. I feel that putting so many of these speed bumps around the deck is only causing more harm than good, and they should be removed.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, I have a lower seated car and just recently had to go home to get my tires alined because they hard speed bumps hand messed them up. I do not speed over them, but I do not go super slow either. They have done nothing for the parking deck problems. They are placed randomly and do not stop the cause of running into someone coming around the corners.
ReplyDelete