More Good Reasons to Kill Your Parking Pass

Today is the first day of classes at the U.  Insanity will prevail.  Mother Nature is already stirring the pot.  She produced a stray shower on campus just before 8 am that produced a direct hit on the new northwest parking garage.  You could barely see it on radar as it was only a few pixels wide and it was over as fast as it started.

Yup, Mother Nature is not too happy about these new parking garages.  There are two more opening up this semester, the central parking garage in the business loop and the aforementioned northwest parking garage next to my building (INSCC).  The latter, which is still under construction (although it appears they are allowing some people to park in it), is pictured below.

I have great disdain for these parking garages for a variety of reasons.  They are expensive.  They encourage driving to campus.  They block the sun, the sky, and the views of the mountains.  Did I say they are expensive?

In terms of annual parking fees, the central parking garage is a relative steal.  You can get a central A pass to park in it or A lots on campus for $552 or a central U pass also valid in U lots for $498.

However, for northwest campus commuters, commuter services has a special treat for you.  You need a T permit to park in the northwest parking garage, which costs $942, or an even pricier R permit (see http://commuterservices.utah.edu/).  Yikes.  @theU claims this morning that faculty and staff can park in the northwest parking garage today with any permit, but if you are driving in this morning, you will be greeted by a sign saying differently.  I guess "this morning" means before 8 am.

Moving to alternative commuting options isn't possible for everyone, but perhaps it is for you.  In April, I told commuter services to stick it.  I canceled my parking pass and since then I've driven to campus once and paid a few bucks to park in a visitor slot.  There are also options for paying for a day pass to park in an A or U lot, although it's a damn shame that those options aren't easier to access to encourage more mixed mode commuting (see my earlier post How I Told Commuter Services to Stick It).

U student Annie Putman has produced a great video discussing the many campus computing options, including some that I was not aware of, like Zimride for finding others to carpool with.

Perhaps this is the year for you to tell Commuter Services to stick it, at least with regards to your parking pass.