Building two parking garages on campus, one on Campus Avenue near the Recreational Sports Center and the other near the engineering building called the North Campus Garage, cost Miami University about $13 million dollars. This spending was perhaps shortsighted, as the number of students parking is dropping and use of the Miami Metro is up. If you would like to park in the garage during the day, the fee is $200 for the year. If you would like to park overnight as well, the fee is $600 for the year. Currently there are only 37 overnight permits sold for the North Campus Garage, which is up from zero last year. There were about 1,800 park-and-ride permits sold this year. There have been 89 garage permits sold, total. So far there have been approximately 10,000 parking citations issued. And currently there are no bike lanes on campus.
So the challenge is filling the parking garages, preferably in a way that encourages more use of the Miami Metro and diminishes the number of tickets being dispensed. One strategy is to eliminate other parking alternatives to funnel drivers into the parking garages. For example, the line of Blue Pass parking on Spring Street could be eliminated, a bike lane created in its place and those with Blue, Green and Red pass holders might begin using the parking garages instead. Purchasing a garage day pass is the same price as a blue permit, but represents a price hike for those green and red permit holders who switch to garage permits. It would go along with our green initiatives to force the switch, but as is often the case with green initiatives, it would also be inconvenient (unless you bike already). The North Parking Garage's original intent was to be the parking hub for the academic quad, the engineering building, the business school and the psychology building. Price incentives haven't caused faculty to switch to the garages, so why not eliminate competing parking options?
Another solution is to let students park in the garages, including overnight. Perry Gordon publicly stated that his office, Parking and Transportation Services, would not be interested in giving out free park-and-ride permits to students willing to purchase a parking garage permit, although they would consider giving a discount (that is, a $50 discount to create an incentive for a $300 pass is too generous). Apparently there is still some hope these garages might prove profitable. If they are able to fill the garages by selling permits at $300 per semester to an extra 400 students, they will generate a bit more than $1 million revenue every five years. This would allow them to realize the initial investment in a few decades time. But there are not 400 students willing to purchase these passes, or rather there are not 400 students willing to purchase these passes at $300 per semester.
Without statistical evidence to back the following assertion, the price for the overnight garage permits needs to be halved to $150 per semester. If a blue pass costs $100, upper-class students will still choose that pass over one that costs 50 percent more and limits them to two locations. But sophomores and first-years may find $100 a reasonable price to upgrade from Ditmer to one of the garages. I personally can't see many students being willing to pay six times as much as they pay to park in Ditmer just to park in the garages.
Campus parking is a problem (the first step is admitting it). There are not enough spots, so students park illegally and face heavy fines. Yet these garages sit empty. Logically, the problem should be solved already, but high prices and better spots keep drivers away from the garages. I simply do not understand why we cannot cut our losses and lower the prices and fill the buildings. Gradually, we can raise prices over time if making a profit off of students is truly a priority (students are already hit up for $500,000 annually for parking citations).
So long as the parking garages are failing, I'd like to mention another alternative to the parking problems at Miami (kudos to the Associated Student Government (ASG) senate for bringing this idea up): ZipCars. Essentially, it is a car rental service that allows students to carry a card, register to use a car for a time slot ranging from just one hour to a whole day, use the card to unlock the car and then return the car at the appointed time. More than 100 universities use this program. The potential benefit is a dramatic reduction in the number of students who need to bring a car to campus simply to run a few errands each week. A reduction in automobiles on campus might steal funds away from Parking Services, but as Gordon told ASG, given environmental incentives, it's worth it.
Brett Schneider schneiba@muohio.edu
