VOL. CXVIII, No. 85
DailyBarometer.com
Monday, february 15, 2016 Oregon State University
Parking patterns
jeremy melamed | THE DAILY BAROMETER
A full parking lot outside of Reser stadium on Western Blvd. on Feb. 1 during the Women’s basketball game against Arizona State.
OSU lots offer 5,800 parking spaces for commuters By Tia Collins News Contributor
Everyday students at Oregon State University must figure out how to commute to their classes, grocery stores, jobs, extracurricular activities, then back home and do the commute all over again. Unfortunately, not all modes of transportation in the Oregon State community are equal in efficiency, availability, and cost. One transportation option that is particularly popular is the car; however, this may not be the best form of transportation on the OSU campus because parking can be difficult. Because OSU has so many students interested in driving to school, parking spaces are crucial. “There are about 7,000 spaces at OSU with different categories. Commuter, residence hall spaces, and reserved spaces are a part of this number. There are closer to 5,800 commuter spaces available to employees and students,” said Meredith Williams, director of Transportation Services. “There are 1,000 resident parking spaces. If you live on and want to park on campus you have to park in these zones.” To be able to park in these campus spaces without getting a ticket, car owners must purchase a parking permit. Parking permits are required between 7 a.m and 5 p.m, Monday through Friday, year-round. After 5 p.m. students can park in commuter parking lots without a parking permit, unless it is a specially designated parking space or there is a meter. “We do sell more permits than spaces available. The number of permits is equal to the number of residents for residential permits, the commuter permits we oversell the lots from 10 percent to 50 percent over, it just depends on the size of the lot and parking patterns.” Williams said.
Williams also sheds light on how many permits they decide to sell. “We go out every other week to count vacant spaces and check uses of the lots to determine if we can sell more lots. We do not want to see lots go over 90 percent occupancy. We try to be thoughtful about peak times, so we check Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.,” Williams said. Not separated from commuter or residence, about 7,400 permits (970 of this number are residential permits) have been sold according to Williams. Despite the easy access to parking policy information, many students find that parking at OSU is still particularly difficult. “It is a pain and it is expensive. You can never find a spot and the campus really isn’t built for cars,” said Eric Wren a student majoring in construction engineering and management. The biggest expense is the depreciation expense, which allows the Transportation Services to save money for future replacement of the assets. Other expenses include maintenance of the parking lots, the parking garage, funding for transportation options program, beaver bus and personnel. Office staff manage permit and citation processing and help with special events and the field staff who do maintenance and parking patrol. The parking patrol is in charge of making sure that people who are parked have the right permit, but also give people a jump start, call if lights are on, and give directions. “The Beaver bus service is completely funded by parking permit revenue. This includes fuel, personnel, washing the cars, and other things,” Williams said. “We are still paying on loan to fund a parking garage.” Not all parking permits are the same price. For instance, campus parking permits that allow parking on the North side of campus
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jeremy melamed | THE DAILY BAROMETER
Parking adjacent to the Plageman Student Health Services building next to the Johnson Hall Construction project. tend to have higher rates (A1 and A2). “A2 and C continue to be the most popular. A2 has biggest waiting list. Sells out the fastest. C-zone is popular because of low price. Sold at less then what we need to maintain lots. Incentive to park in one a little further.” Williams said. Tanya Andersson, the Parking Specialist at Oregon State University, said that students should not be afraid to mix modes of
transportation. “Buy a C-zone permit, park your car in it and then ride a bike instead of shuttle,” Andersson said. OSU also offers a carpool system which allows students to go green. With the carpool system, many students can get an infrequent driver discount while also reducing the over-
See Parking, Page 3
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