Michelle Osmond

Second year nursing student, Emily Loder, says she never takes too many bags to the grocery store. Ms. Loder lives in residence but doesn’t have a car so she takes the bus to run errands, including groceries. But there’s a limit on how much you can carry back on the bus and back to your residence.

Many students are in the same boat as Ms. Loder; they occasionally need a car but not enough to own one or get parking on campus. For students like Ms. Loder, Memorial has just partnered with Student CarShare; a service that’s available on many other university campuses across the country.

Student CarShare (SCS) is an on-demand car rental system. Students buy a membership for $50 a year plus a $25 application fee and then pay an hourly fee that includes gas and insurance. Members get a smart card that unlocks it when they make a reservation.

So far, there’s one car on campus. On Feb. 5, SCS parked the first car in lot 14 on the east side of Curtis House. If all goes well, they’ll be adding a second one in the near future.

Jeff Fifield is the assistant manager (acting) of Campus Enforcement and Patrol (CEP). He was approached by the Memorial University of Newfoundland Students’ Union (MUNSU) about SCS. They met with Student Housing and everyone agreed it was worth a try.

“There’s a high demand for parking and there’s a lack of space and Student Housing has certainly been impacted by the loss of parking. So I’m hoping that students will avail of a vehicle parked on campus to help them get to appointments, groceries, etc.; errands that everyone needs to do but they may not need a car on campus year round.”

 Kimberly Drisdelle is the executive director of MUNSU. She says MUNSU is pretty excited to have this service on campus. “It’s no secret that parking on campus is a challenge. In other cities where Student CarShare is made available, one CarShare car removes the need for up to 10 other vehicles in the area. By providing an affordable alternative, students, especially those living on campus, who do not need a car for a regular commute can choose to make use of CarShare instead of going further in debt to finance a vehicle and the costs associated with it.”

“That said parking is a complex issue. We are working with the university to create a Parking and Transit Solutions Committee bringing together multiple stakeholders from the university community, the city, and the province, including Metrobus Transit. Solving Memorial’s parking problem is going to take the cooperation of each of these parties and we look forward to working with them in the near future.”

Mr. Fifield said if CarShare takes off they’ll look at allowing more vehicles on campus for students to rent. MUNSU is officially launching the service February 23-27, with a special promotion where students who sign up in this first week get a free membership for a year by entering the promo code MUNSU at www.studentcarshare.ca/MUNSU.