For many Bishopians who drive to school, parking can be frustrating. The Assistant Dean of Students, Melissa Kirchberg, uses a lottery system to assign some lucky students a spot in the parking garage for a semester, but the rest have to find spaces on their own. 

Along the campus’ perimeter, there is free parking and with no time limit. The three places where students can get free parking all day are Draper Avenue, the curb along La Jolla Boulevard and Prospect Street, and Cuvier Street. Understanding how many spaces these areas have open in the morning, how close they are to morning advisories, and their other attributes, are important in order for Bishop’s drivers to decide where to park. 

Draper Avenue

Draper Avenue can be found next to the Michael & Marlene Teitlman Science Center and has spaces perpendicular to the east side of the school’s perimeter. Its free spaces outside of school start from the intersection that joins with Pearl Street, and ends at the T-intersection that joins with Kline Street. Of its 65 total spaces, which is the most of the three areas around the school that offer all-day free parking, Draper Avenue averaged 19 open at 7:45am and 8 spaces open at 8:00am during the two day study.

All 16 students approached by The Tower said they prefer to park on Draper, possibly due to its availability in the morning and its total number of spaces. Furthermore, they all cited convenience as a contributing factor to their choice, which Reagan Kilber (‘24) elaborated on, saying, “I park on Draper because there’s all day parking there … and it’s a close walk to my advisory.”

La Jolla Boulevard / Prospect Street (A.K.A the Curb)

By the school’s South entrance, there is a long curb where drivers can parallel park their cars for all-day free parking. This curb begins at the merging point of Regina Street and La Jolla Boulevard, continues through the intersection between La Jolla Boulevard and Prospect Street (around the North side of campus), and ends at Cuvier Street. Unlike Draper, spaces here are not evenly divided by white lines, so the amount of total spaces on the Curb was determined by the average number of cars that parked here over the course of the two-day study.

Of its 35 total spaces, the Curb had about 13 available spaces at 7:45 am and 10.5 available spaces at 8:00 am during the study. Therefore, while Draper may average more open spaces at 7:45am, the Curb averages more spaces at 8:00am. Students such as Declan O’Donivan (‘25) credits his choice of parking (before getting a space in the garage) to this availability the closer it gets to school starting, saying, “I parked [on the Curb] because it was the only parking that was open and not [only available for] two hours. I would get to school at about eight in the morning and would usually be able to find parking.” Additionally, all of the surveyed students who said they preferred the Curb cited “convenience” as why. This is possibly because of it being next to Cummins Hall, Bentham Hall, and the Manchester Library and Learning Center, where many students have their morning advisories.

Cuvier Street

Cuvier Street begins near the ocean, stemming off from Coast Boulevard, and ends at the North end of campus behind Ellen Scripps Browning Hall. Its free spaces are perpendicular to the side-walk line on both the edge of campus and the outside of the La Jolla Recreation Center.

Of the 16 students that were surveyed and interviewed by The Tower, none said that they choose to park here, as there are many aspects to Cuvier Street that don’t make it an ideal place for students to park. For starters, of the 25 total non-handicapped spaces on Cuvier Street which is the least of the three places that offer free all-day parking. Furthermore, it averaged only one spot at 7:45am and no spots at 8:00am on the days of the study, making it the least available place to park out of all three places that offer free all-day parking. Michael Geng (‘24) said  “I’ve never considered parking on Cuvier Street because it is never open.” 

Some may find it tedious to weigh your options and wake up as early as possible to find a good parking spot. However, if you don’t plan ahead, you could risk being late to class or getting a parking ticket, which could make for an unpleasant start to your day. Additionally, since parking is a challenge that is prevalent in adulthood for any driver, practicing this executive function now could pay dividends in the future.