It is quite commonplace to hear people complain about parking services on campus. Unfortunately, few if any of us actually take the time to look at the economics and organization behind parking. This subject is often neglected – a shame, because I think it is extremely important. I hope you take the time to read this, and even add in your own ideas for discussion through online comments and e-mail.
Did you know that we have the second cheapest parking in the SEC behind Ole Miss? At the University of Tennessee, parking costs $253 a year. At the University of Florida, a year costs you $122. At Georgia Tech, it’s $590. Outside of the SEC, the University of Chicago’s parking costs a hefty $750.
I talked to Mike Harris, director of parking services at MSU, to find out how we implement parking strategy. Basically, parking can be cheap and enough but not convenient, cheap and convenient but not enough, or convenient and enough but not cheap. Not all three. At Mississippi State, parking is cheap and enough but not necessarily convenient. Did you know that the ratio of parking spaces to permits sold is 78 percent? On any given day there are easily more than 1,000 spaces on campus available, though they may not be well-located. It definitely surprised me. Don’t believe me? They will be glad (if they have time) to drive you around and show you!
Why do we have zones? They have a purpose too. A few years ago, there were only day students (commuters) and on-campus residents. Everyone could park wherever they desired, granted it was in a day student zone. Seems like a good idea, right? Wrong. There was a huge problem with cross-campus traffic jams during times between classes. Shuttles would also get stuck in these jams, and nothing would run properly. Now, thanks to the zones, shuttles usually run on average every 7 to 10 minutes. Except for a few legitimate reasons, don’t you find it ridiculous that driving is so ingrained in our minds that we feel like we have to get in our cars to drive to our next class, even when walking usually takes the same amount of time?
I write about a lot of things, but parking services is something that affects us daily. We students have a very powerful voice at this university, especially through our Student Association. There is a Traffic Policy Committee in which recommendations can be made on traffic regulations, enforcement, traffic flow and parking. There are even four students on this committee. They, along with the rest of us, want to make the university a better place.
So, here are two of my ideas I think should be considered. Two years ago, there were more than 24,000 citations issued on campus. What if, after your first citation, there was a voluntary option to work around campus for an X amount of time equivalent to the price of your citation? Don’t want to call your parents and ask them for money for a ticket? You wouldn’t have to. Actually, for something like this to happen, there would have to be a lot more attention to detail. First, these workers would have to sign liability forms and contracts agreeing to work for their X amount of hours. That way no one, including the Institutions of Higher Learning, would think this was some kind of scheme to have free labor around campus.
Secondly, how would this affect the job security of workers we already have around campus?
Depending on the volume of workers, could this be extended to more than just the first ticket? Would they still be able to appeal, and if so, since rejected appeals are automatically sent to Lee Hall, would someone there then have to further deal with them? I say work or appeal, but not both. Assuming every first-time offender chose the work option, around 3,000 tickets would be lost. At an average of about $40 a ticket, that would be $120,000 in lost revenue. On average, the construction of a parking space costs $2,500 to $3,000. So, that would be 40 new parking spaces lost. I think this is doable, considering the number of empty parking spaces and the fact that not everyone receiving a ticket would choose to work. Remember, these suggestions, of course, are only preliminary and can and should be tweaked upon further investigation and observation.
Further, Harris explained to me that for an idea like this to be implemented, it would probably require at least two new full-time employees, not to mention the briefly aforementioned administrative implementation of a work-off-a-ticket-or-whatever-you-want-to-call-it program. So would this be viable and, more importantly, appealing? I don’t know. I think it would definitely leave offenders for the most part inexcusable, because they would now have an option of not paying and working off their first ticket instead. Publicly, I think this could also do wonders considering our “green report card.” It could create an increase in concern about the general condition of our university. But indeed, time is our most precious commodity. Would enough people really want to work around campus for a couple hours in order not to pay a ticket?
Harris might be right: The best investment of an offender’s time would probably be to spend that time studying, because GPA oftentimes equals money.
It seems like my word count runs short. I’ll share my second idea next week. For homework, read about free parking. Is it really free? I challenge you to look at its obvious effects in our community, especially on our campus. A great read in this context is “The High Cost of Free Parking” by Donald Shoup.
I leave you with these statistics. Approximately 80 percent of students will never get a traffic citation during their entire MSU career. The rest will account for the entire parking services citation revenue – some with only one ticket, but many will have repeat offences. Two years ago, one staff member and 179 students had more than 16 citations each. Several students had more than 50 citations. These numbers have not changed. If anything, they have gone up. I don’t know a proper adjective for these numbers. Amazing? Grateful and indebted? Pathetic? At the least, it is interesting. Let me know what you think, Mississippi State.
Julio Cespedes is a junior majoring in biological engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].