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    Parking Changes to Include Permit Dispensers, Night & Weekend Fees

    By VIC COX

    Campus parking fees for weeknights after 5 p.m. and on weekends will go into effect on July 1, 2003, Transportation and Parking Services (T&PS) has announced. Unless the motorist already carries a parking permit, the new rates will be $2 a night (no overnight parking allowed) during the week and $2 a day for Saturday and Sunday.
    "There will be no extra charge to regular permit holders" for the new hours, explained Tom Roberts, director of T&PS. Only those without monthly permits will be required to pay for their time on campus–and many of them may qualify for discounts.
    Graduate students have already passed a lock-in fee that will allow them discounted access; undergraduates are expected to consider a similar one on this spring's ballot, Roberts indicated. Other affected large groups may choose among several methods of payment, including a 25 percent discount to departments that purchase 500 or more single-event parking permits in advance.
    Also probable this summer, the East Entrance may be redesigned in preparation for initial construction work on the California NanoSystems Institute and the campus's second parking structure. The alterations will likely require relocation of the visitor booth from that entrance, Roberts said, but "if this occurs, signage will...direct visitors to the new location of the staffed information booth." His department, he added, "has no plans for the permanent elimination" of a central, staffed information booth. The West Entrance booth will eventually be eliminated, however, as automated means supplant the present permit- and information-dispensing system.
    "We're trying to be flexible and creative to accommodate parkers," said Roberts. Perhaps this is most evident in the ways in which permits will be made available as well as the planned broadcasting of traffic and parking information.
    Beginning in May, about 40 permit-dispensing machines will be installed in most of the parking areas, Roberts said. Individuals will be able to use cash, Visa, or MasterCards to acquire single-use permits from the dispensers; graduate students need only their Access cards. There is even a way to charge the permit cost to a cellular phone account.
    Finding a parking space is expected to become easier in the next few weeks as T&PS finishes testing a radio system that will allow motorists to tune into an AM frequency that broadcasts current campus parking information. The transmissions can be changed remotely, allowing for quick response in the event of an emergency.