In our ongoing quest for a safer alternative to walking home in the dark, we have actively campaigned for the UW-Madison transportation committee to make some parking lots near libraries, athletic facilities and other areas of student activity free to students after 5 p.m., when classes are over and most staff and faculty have left.

Thus we listed the 14 lots we considered most important, and it was with high hopes we read the ballot for the vote by the UW Transportation Policy subcommittee on the Lot Enforcement Policy Statement. We were confident they would alter the original plan, which made some lots less, not more, accessible.

The first good sign was that enforcement times for some lots were being changed from 5 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Even better was the rationale. The ballot said this change was “yet another bit of evidence of how we have worked to make the campus a friendlier place for both staff and public, and a bit friendlier for students.”

Sure, this change was miniscule and rather pointless, but if it was “another bit of evidence,” that must mean the committee considered student concerns and gave students more late-night parking options.

Actually, no.

The subcommittee passed the original plan — the one that made the current bad situation even worse — with no other changes.

Lots near Grainger, Helen C. White, Law and Memorial Libraries? Enforced 24 hours a day. Same with lots near Nielsen Tennis Stadium, the SERF, and Memorial Union. It’s hard to see this as “evidence of how … to make the campus a friendlier place.” Less safe is more like it.