Years ago, Cornell pushed everyone to carpool, promising us good bus service if we used distant lots. So 3 of us began car pooling. Then you take the B Lot bus away. If I don't drop my rider off at her building she has to walk from B Lot to the vet school to get the bus to further campus regions. A few weeks ago she had bronchitis, I took a day off and she had to walk from B Lot to the Vet school stop in the rain. Likely due to the wet walk, Bronchitis evolved into Pneumonia. She missed some days but had important meetings and had to go on on certain days. I had scheduled working late a few nights (usually requiring us to drive in separate), but knowing she had to walk in the cold and with no bus pick up I canceled my plans because I couldn't stand to see her drive separate, park in B Lot and walk in miserable weather while trying to recover from Pneumonia. Another time we dealt with an injured ankle, and a hike the long way to the Vet School was painful. The bus pick up needs to return to B Lot as was promised to us who sacrificed independence for car pooling to save money while buying into Cornell's obsessive mission to cut down on cars on campus. Not fair. B Lot is no longer friendly to sick, elderly, and mobility impaired (even if temporarily impaired) workers. I guess the lack of bus service works well for encouraging older workers (especially daily users of B Lot) to retire sooner, especially after enough freezing cold, icy, slippery, Winter hikes to the Vet School. We come in from the Dryden direction so B Lot use is logical, using A is not.

A study of the parking/transportation situation should also look at the equitability of how parking permits are allocated. In Cornell’s system, the most convenient parking is offered to those with higher-ranking job titles. The scale of different parking rates is also used to literally marginalize lower-income staff to outer lots. This is grossly unfair. If Cornell truly wants to be a more equitable and inclusive place, we can start with how staff are treated. The current system where higher income buys better parking is not in keeping with the spirit of Ezra Cornell. While there should be some exceptions, such as for disability parking and for emergency responders, a more equitable parking system might be a lottery system, or might be based only on proximity to someone’s work location. Wealthier staff should not be offered more convenient parking while lower-paid, hourly staff are expected to park farther away, are expected to spend more time traveling to and from their work locations after arriving on campus, and are not even compensated for the extra time they are required to put in.