The early afternoon at the Barnwell Street AD7 parking lot on USC’s Columbia campus is a mad dash for an open space.

Multiple cars circle like vultures, slowly prowling down each aisle, jerking forward at the glimpse of bare pavement, only to sag back at the sight of a short sedan bumper.

An impatient few will zoom off to pursue a spot in another lot or a rare city meter closer to their classroom building.

The same routine is paralleled across the sprawling campus’s lots and garages because of the limited parking available to students, faculty and visitors. With a growing student body, including the record 7,800 freshmen who started in August, the ratio of cars to spots is increasing. It’s common among urban universities for parking to be finite, so empty spaces aren’t the norm. But frustrations are mounting for students and nearby residents.

Back on Barnwell, one commuter gets lucky: A student is walking down the steep hill from Gervais Street, heading to their car. The driver crawls behind the walker at an achingly slow 3 mph, trying to see which car to stop behind. Then comes the kill – they must be quick to take the spot, because others will screech in and steal it in seconds.

Curse words fly.

“It’s so inconvenient and really annoying,” said Allyson Kuridza, a University of South Carolina student with a commuter parking pass. “I come an hour before my classes start and just have to sit (here).”

Kuridza waits in the Barnwell lot for about 10 minutes before driving to the other end of campus and trying again near the Colonial Life Arena.

Parking garages come with a greater opportunity for a space. They have multiple levels to peruse but are just as much of a struggle to students such as Tavean Herghelegiu, a sophomore who has a permit for the Discovery Garage on Park Street. One day last month, he was unable to find a single spot in the garage he pays $440 per semester to access.

 “Some days it’s a struggle,” Herghelegiu said.

The university’s take

As for surface lots, universities typically sell more permits than there are available spaces on campus, according to USC Internal Communications Manager Collyn Taylor.

The idea is to maximize the number of spaces being occupied day to day. But it’s the peak times when students suffer.

There are several surface lots on campus, but spaces can be occupied overnight or for multiple days by students living on campus who are trying to park close to their dorms. USC’s newest solution to the parking issues is to encourage students to abandon their ideal lot, park where they can and use available transportation.

“Students should plan accordingly and utilize the ParkUSC app to see available parking across surface lots on campus,” Taylor said. “Students are also encouraged to use USC’s bus system and can track arrivals and routes via the Transloc app.”

What if you’re not a student?

When Campus Village and its nearly 2,000 beds came online in 2023, it brought tension between USC and neighborhoods to a head.

With only 200 parking spots to match after an original plan of a more-than-900-space garage, the neighbors’ excitement dwindled.

Residents of Wheeler Hill, Wales Garden and Hollywood-Rose Hill have taken USC to court in a lawsuit. Kit Smith, a former Richland County Council member and a past president of the Wales Garden Neighborhood Association, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She said the neighborhoods are working to restore a relationship with the university to collaborate on parking concerns.

“There are other universities that have worked with their neighborhoods to establish parking and absorbed it into the neighborhoods without disruption of the neighborhoods,” Smith said. “We’ve got some ideas from other schools. We just need to talk to somebody that is interested in listening to us and working with us.”

Smith said the bridges have not been burned between USC and the locals.

 “I feel like they’ve lifted the bridge across the moat,” Smith said. “We want to get to the table and have a conversation, and the only way we can figure out to do that was to file this lawsuit.”

Parking was what many students wanted to discuss at the Imagine Carolina retreat on Sept. 21. Student Body President Courtney Tkacs and university President Michael Amiridis listened to individual stories to collaborate on potential solutions.

Tkacs learned from USC Parking Services at the retreat that the high cost of a parking permit provides money for infrastructure, including the “space available” parking lights in garages. Like Taylor, she encourages students to use the ParkUSC app and browse the campus’s available spots.

“This is a concern that I get text messages about, emails about – students will just come up and talk to me about parking,” Tkacs said. “I definitely have experienced the frustration as well of not being able to find a parking spot and how that really kind of sets the tone for your day.”