Game Day Externalities

Last Friday, I drove home from McDonald’s at 11pm to find no parking by my apartment. Our apartment parking lot does not require a permit, but I almost never had any trouble finding a spot in the past year I’ve had my car at school. I drove up and down JPA to look for a spot (which there was none) and ended up parking in the Student Health lot, a fifteen minute walk from my apartment.

You see, last Saturday was a football game day, and on game days, street parking is not allowed on one side of JPA. I would say this is a negative production externality because it is the university that hosts these games and creates these policies, considering only their marginal private costs of reserving half of JPA without considering the marginal social costs of the inconvenience to all the residents on JPA. Every home game day, people who normally park on the street due to parking lot overflows must find parking elsewhere, or else get towed.

There are also negative consumption externalities that result from all the spectators that come support UVA football, considering only their marginal private benefit of enjoying the sport and spirit and not the marginal social benefit that accounts for the marginal damage that arise to those that live by the stadium. The increased number of people in town create traffic and noise that affects people like me, who don't watch the games and just want to be able to carry out their regular Saturday routine each week. Every game day, I debate whether or not it is worth trying to leave Grounds to get some groceries or study at a cafe because I know it will take much longer to get there and back. Sometimes, I can’t even get back to my apartment without a piece of mail proving my residence there! This isn’t a unique experience; DukeToday published an article warning people of the traffic for one of their games earlier this season. This article even discusses the increased danger of driving on college football game days due to the increased traffic and drinking.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of property rights in this situation that deems many solutions impractical. Neither the visitors nor the tenants own the roads in Charlottesville in order to internalize these negative externalities on parking and traffic. I've decided that although I recognize these externalities that negatively affect me, this is something I can deal with for the handful of home games left in my college career.