Illegal parking by students troublesome
Despite the rows of available parking spaces in Utah State University’s economy parking lots, students are parking illegally on residential roads and in business parking lots near campus.
“I think I’ve written 250 warnings so far,” said Dan Lacy, manager of Logan Parking Authority. “We could have written a lot more than that.”
Lacy said he will soon be strict about writing citations instead of warnings for people parked on one of the many residential streets surrounding campus which are not open to student parking.
“If you park there and you shouldn’t be, then you get a ticket,” Lacy said.
Pete Miller, manager of Logan Golf and Country Club, said he’s had a problem with students parking in his lot in the past, but this year is worse than ever.
“We don’t want to tow the cars. We know that would be a hardship on the students, but at the same time, we have a business to run,” Miller said. “I have members here that pay to be members and have the ability to park here. If they can’t, that’s a disservice to them and so I would have no choice [but to tow].”
Lacy said there is a particular problem on 700 North between Hillcrest and 1500 East, where students can park on the south side but not the north side of the street. He said people will park on the north side until they learn they can’t.
“You can’t miss those orange tickets everywhere,” Lacy said. “For some reason, students don’t care. They are completely oblivious to the fact that people are getting tickets.”
Lacy said it would be the same distance for students to buy an economy pass and park in the stadium or terrace lots below the Spectrum. University buses shuttle students to the center of campus for free.
An economy pass for a semester costs $10. Each parking ticket costs $15 if paid within 10 business days, and $30 after, Lacy said.
“I really don’t understand why you want to park in residential streets, when you can park on campus,” Lacy said.
If a student has five unpaid tickets, Lacy said, the next step is booting, or attaching a device to the wheel that prevents the vehicle from moving, until the student pays $50 to have it removed.
-heidithue@cc.usu.edu