Slam the brakes on parking fees

Written by Jaechan Preston Lee

Despite ever-increasing enrollment numbers, UC San Diego still refuses to improve its parking infrastructure. Instead, the administration is pushing students to use public transit to avoid high parking fees. Though this appears to be a common sense policy, it actually exacerbates our campus’s inaccessibility — ignoring the shortcomings of off-campus public transit and further disenfranchising those who have no other way to commute. 

Parking tickets, a common complaint among UCSD students, represent the most prominent example of the administration’s ignorance. Research from the Urban Institute suggests that parking tickets disproportionately impact people of color and those with lower incomes; this is true at UCSD too — a campus rife with food and housing insecurity. Decreasing parking fees is thus a necessity to reduce the barriers to accessing campus. 

Instead, the administration has increased both parking permit prices and the cost of parking tickets. In tandem with inefficient public transit and the size of the campus, parking tickets and fees have become an unfair, costly burden for students. 

San Diego has woefully inadequate public transportation, hampered by decades of sprawling single family homes and car-centric infrastructure. As a result, getting to and from work and school without a personal vehicle is difficult. According to a 2021 report, 2.6% of San Diego residents utilize public transportation to commute to work — well below the national average. It is unreasonable to believe off-campus students can use it as their primary means of commuting. This ultimately limits the options for those who live in areas without adequate transit, forcing them to either pay exorbitant parking fees to park on campus or risk a ticket. Parking fees can be more than $120 a month — $6.35 on weekdays — for undergraduate students, an outrageous cost to impose on students who already have to pay for their car. 

Even when students pay for parking passes, the walk from designated student — or S — spots is an additional barrier. Only the far west and far east sides of campus have S spots, adding hours to weekly commute times for undergraduate students who have to walk long distances to and from classes. This has been exacerbated by the removal of S spots from the Gilman Parking Structure, as well as the lack of S spots in the newly-built Theatre District. 

Although the costly permits and fees exist to encourage the use of sustainable transportation in the face of a changing climate, until the city implements efficient alternatives, off-campus students will be forced to utilize their personal vehicles. 

Given that the undergraduate population is steadily growing, the University should be adding student parking, not reducing it. Instead of forcing students to choose between steep parking fees and heavy-handed tickets for low-quality parking spots, UCSD should prioritize decreasing parking costs — accommodating for, not ignoring, the lack of quality public transportation across San Diego.

Parking fees: A necessary squeeze

Written by Avani Kongetira

Last week, The UCSD Guardian reported on the approval of a new fee system for parking at Balboa Park, a proposal condemned by many community members. UC San Diego often receives a similarly intense negative response — a sentiment anyone who has had to apply for a parking permit or open the ParkMobile app can empathize with — to its longstanding system of permits and fees for campus parking. 

These fees, however, are a necessary evil that work to better our campus. They help encourage the use of public transportation, reduce traffic and competition for parking spots, and promote sustainability. Getting rid of them would be impractical for all parties involved.

On-campus residents, faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students can purchase different parking passes depending on which category they fall into. A basic undergraduate student pass costs $6.35 per day, and a visitor pass is $4.50 per hour or $36 per day. These expenses unfortunately add up for students over the course of the year, but they go directly to Transportation Services, which then funds the maintenance and expansion of lots and on-campus shuttles, among other expenses.

The simplest solution is seemingly to do away with the fees altogether and have UCSD pay for these services using the money it rakes in from student tuition. By law, however, UCSD cannot use tuition money to pay for transportation expenses. This means that Transportation Services must somehow collect revenue to fund its operations, making charging for parking the most logical way to do so. 

This is by no means a perfect arrangement. We all grumble about parking fees for commuters and then proceed to look for free street parking, even if it means an extra 20-minute walk to our lecture hall. Taking public transit can add considerable time to students’ commutes, especially for those who live far away from trolley stations and bus stops. Others choose to park illegally if they believe the risk of getting a ticket is worth forgoing the price of a permit. To address these issues, Transportation Services could subsidize permits for students who qualify for financial aid, since many lower-income students rely on driving to commute to off-campus jobs.

Still, if this law were to be repealed, the alternative to parking fees would be to raise our tuition — an unfair policy for students who do not park on campus. Not to mention, students already pay $75 per quarter for “free” transportation around San Diego; removing parking fees would incentivize students to opt for driving to school instead of taking the bus or trolley. Hardly the least of consequences, the University would be moving backwards in its efforts to create a more sustainable campus.

Removing the fees would also increase traffic during rush periods, as well as competition for parking spots. The addition of parking spaces would be nearly impossible since Transportation Services’ revenue stream would be depleted. 

Educational institutions are where new practices and progressive ideas take root; while encouraging the use of public transportation over driving is hardly new, our campus should prioritize this goal. 

The monetization of parking — a basic necessity — is an annoying reality. But at UCSD, it serves a bigger purpose that eases the burden on the campus as a whole. There will be no perfect commute to campus in the near future, but at least we are working toward a more sustainable one.