University Parking Lots

[UM IsANders]

I know there's been some discussion of testing locations, but I'm curious as to how many teams get to use university property at all. The excuses we get for not being allowed on campus are noise and making people walk an extra two minutes to their offices.

Also is it different in the summer once most people have left campus?

[UM IsANders]

I know there's been some discussion of testing locations, but I'm curious as to how many teams get to use university property at all. The excuses we get for not being allowed on campus are noise and making people walk an extra two minutes to their offices.

Also is it different in the summer once most people have left campus?

[Angry Joe]

Desk jockeys tend to get dizzy with visions of lawsuits when they hear the words "univesity parking lot" and "student built race car" in the same sentence. Are you sure that isn't the real problem?

All I can offer is to try compromising by offering to run during off-hours, muffling your car better etc. Safety protocol couldn't hurt either.

We get to use one of the lots on the athletic campus, but we get booted if any sort of event is going on. I think it would take one accident or serious injury to permanently end that though.

Lehigh Formula SAE

www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula (http://www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula)

[Denny Trimble]

We've struggled to maintain our access to the University lot in the past. Generally, here are the guidelines for what has made it work:

-Come up with a formal protocol for each year, including people responsible (one team captain must be on-site), a map of the lot showing the area you will rope off, safety protocols, etc.
Also buy a cheap noise meter and state that you'll quantify the noise of the car at each drive. This helps with noise complaints (below legal limits, etc)

-Don't break the coin-op entry gate arms, they're expensive

-Don't align your acceleration runs so the muffler is pointing at the dorms, then start driving at 8AM on a saturday.

-Check into insurance requirements (we pay university insurance fees per drive) and police notification (we have to let 'em know).

We actually do 90% of our testing at a Boeing parking lot right now, because their access agreement is so much looser and the lot is much better. Fill out a hold-harmless once, and we're good for a year.

Hope this helps.

University of Washington Formula SAE ('98, '99, '03)

[EliseS2]

We just find lots that are in good shape. Then drive until the police or security kick us out.

[Moeye]

We get to use our lots all the time. In the Summer it's great, not much red tape to go through since we usually run the car on a week day. On weekends, it's another story. The people in charge of Assembly Hall and its lot are trying to schedule a show every weekend so they can to bring money to the University. (The new gov-ner is ripping the school's budget a new hole, if ya know what I mean).

We're quite fortunate to have access to the lots which allows us to keep a consistent course setup for comparing lap times.

the cranky dood
UIUC <a href="http://dilbert.cen.uiuc.edu/soc/sae/formula/">Racing Illini</a>

[Michael Jones]

We have a reliable but politically complex system.

We request driving times - usually in far flung lots after business hours and weekends.

There is a Use of University Property (UUP) procedure that has to be checked, double-checked and negotiated by at least nine entities.


Even then, we phone the campus police before and after we go driving, and have to stop for the unloading of sick horses at the Vet school next door.

The people in the nearby community of Forest Home complain, but we can't figure out why. You can vaguely hear a buzzing sound, which is regular enough but is easily drowned out by a passing car, a lawn mower, muisc, your screaming spoiled obnoxious kids you're sheltering from fun to the point of smothering, etc. (One woman complained to me personally about noise as her little darling snot-nosed ADHD drunken mistake of a child started hitting the back of my leg while hollering. Logically, I still feel it would've been right to kill them both.)

To appease them, we run a special ugly, large but effective muffler in practice...and our car actually has got quieter recently due to changes in the exhaust system.

Other than noise, we don't get much flak. Availability of lots is poor though - weekends are the only time we can reliably perform auto-x or endurance testing, and even then, only on a course 1/3 to 1/4 that of competition, even with wicked overlaps ans strangeness. Shifter courses are rare.

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Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu

[Michael Jones]

Back to related threads, it's nice to have some institutional support. Without it we'd be screwed - even with, it's a hassle, since our best lot is being pressured by residence construction about 1.5 miles away.

Overall though, the school's appreciative of the effort. Student teams are featured prominently on the Engineering college web site (http://www.engineering.cornell.edu) and the Dean is hosting an alumni reception/luncheon this year at competition. Should be fun.

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Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu

[Garbo]

We've found that the best thing to do is try to schedule testing during off-times (evenings, weekends, etc.) It also really helps to butter up security like crazy. Campus Enforcement at MUN are among our staunchest supporters. The patrols to the eng. building take back reports on the team progress to the CEP corffee room during these days when a lot is going on with the team. They even booted a bunch of geology faculty out of an underground parking lot for us last year so we didn't have to run the slicks through standing water on the parking lots.

The laminate schedule calls... the smells of new cars: That overly distinctive FSAE exhaust scent, dying rubber, and epoxy. The smells of spring!

g