What if you could drive a car to school without paying for a parking permit? What if you didn’t have to pay for car insurance, vehicle maintenance or even gas? You’d probably ask: What’s the catch?

If you’re a UCSD student, staff member or faculty member, there isn’t one. Through the program, UCSD affiliates who do not purchase parking permits can rent a Flex Car for a free six hours per month, paying a small hourly fee after that. And as part of a test program at 11 universities nationwide, students between the ages of 18 and 21 are able to rent the cars at a discounted hourly rate, after paying a refundable deposit. It’s as good a program as can be expected, and it may even convince some first- and second-year students to leave their cars at home.

UCSD’s Parking and Transportation Services also offers a discounted permit that is valid only in the underutilized lots in East Campus. It’s a good idea, and the lower costs ought to convince at least a handful of commuters to hop the far side of Interstate 5 (or hop on one of the shuttles that run between the lots and the main campus).

Unfortunately, poor implementation may run both of these ideas into the ground, or at least keep them from flourishing the way they should.

The $4 monthly discount on permits for the East Campus isn’t nearly enough to convince anyone to park in UCSD’s hinterland. And while the Flex Car Web site flaunts its pilot program for 18- to 21-year-olds at UCSD, the T&PS Web site is mysteriously silent on the subject. How are undergrads supposed to use a program they don’t know about?

The discounted permits and the Flex Car program are good ideas, but they will never see the success of the wildly popular Cityshuttle because thus far they are only half-measures.