Students stay late to avoid parking fees
USU Parking and Transportation Services will not be extending the hours of paid parking at the Big Blue Parking Terrace, Associate Vice President for Business and Finance Dwight Davis said. The Terrace currently allows people to drive out without paying after 9:30 p.m.
“We decided at the moment, no, we are not going to change the gate times,” Davis said. He said “(We will) continue to collect data and see if there are ways that we can better utilize the resources that we have.”
Davis said the focus is on finding customer service options to improve the overall service on campus, including students, visitors, faculty and staff.
Parking and Transportation Director James Nye said the Parking Office is currently collecting data on the Terrace.
“We have a program in there that shows us when the gate is lifted and when people exit. And we have occupancy data for every hour of the day,” Nye said. “In the evenings we may be doing some studies about how long the students have actually parked there and when they’re leaving, and gathering some information on what their needs are and trying to meet those needs.”
USU student Kamille Clifford said she occasionally parks in the Terrace when there are events on campus that she wants to go to.
Students who work on campus often park at the terrace to be able to park close to their job. Kodie Alder said she parks there almost every day because she works at the Fieldhouse at night. She added that many of her coworkers also use the Terrace.
“I have a lot of friends that do that, and then they always end up paying to get out,” Alder said. “But they would always try to wait till 9:30 (at night), until a friend would come pick them up, and then they would come back and get their car later.”
Loren Brewer, who works at the Quadside Cafe, in the Merrill-Cazier Library, said he parks in the Terrace.
“It’s close to campus, if not, I’d have to park — I honestly don’t think I’d know where to park,” Brewer said.
Davis said the terrace isn’t the only area on campus where students can park without being charged, or without receiving a parking ticket after a certain time of day.
“After 5 p.m., 81 percent of all of the on-campus parking lots are available,” Davis said.
Parking lots near student housing require ticketing of cars without parking passes 24 hours a day, Nye said. He said the parking lot behind the library and the Biotechnology Center is also reserved for faculty and tickets 24 hours.
Nye said another thing that could impact the parking situation is the construction of new buildings on former parking lots.
“Faculty and staff who had parking permits in these particular areas are affected,” Davis said, “and have to be moved to other parking lots, which does increase the demand for additional on-campus parking for faculty and staff.”
Davis said the new buildings are good for the school, however.
“It’s a wonderful thing for Utah State University. We certainly are excited to see the growth and with that comes opportunities to try and find solutions for parking,” Davis said.
One of those solutions could be to make minor adjustments to lots around campus. Parking and Transportation Services sent out a notification that said it has made adjustments to the parking areas around the Spectrum because of the loss of faculty parking in on campus.
Parking and Transportation Services also provides students with the Aggie Shuttle, in addition to generally overseeing parking.
“We are utilizing the Aggie Shuttle heavier than we ever have in it’s history,” Nye said. “We carried more people last year than we ever had — we carried over a million people. We have more buses per round than we have in the past. We’re trying to utilize that service to it’s capacity”
Cache Valley Transit District works with the school, Davis said.
“CVTD will be on campus in a couple of weeks to specifically talk to students about transportation needs,” Davis said. “They will conduct focus groups and do some student surveys.”
— chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu