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Two changes in the University's overall parking policies will mean higher parking fees in 1999-2000 for some parking permits and a change in the way free park-and-ride transit passes are distributed.
The increased parking fees affect parking zones:
* R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, S9 and S11, which will cost $276 for 1999-2000, up from $223 this year;
* F, which will cost $207 in 1999-2000, up from $139 this year; and
* Student Parking permit T, which increases to $257 from $201.
The new pricing follows recommendations of the Transportation and Parking Task Force made in May 1998 to increase prices in lots. This round of increases in the R and S lots is the final of two phased-in increases while the F and T lots are the second of three phased-in increases.
A new policy for distributing free transit passes for the park-and-ride lots will mean fewer passes being available to University employees in 1999-2000.
The popularity of the program and the limited number of free passes prompted the Public Safety Department to create a distribution policy. That policy will be in effect as employees register for parking in April and May for next year's permits, which take effect Aug. 15.
The new policy will reserve passes for each of three groups -- students, hospital employees and University employees -- based on each group's share of the commuting population, said Cheryl Stout, the assistant director for parking services.
For example, University employees make up 32 percent of total commuters and therefore will receive 32 percent of the free transit passes. Following that formula, students will receive 53 percent of the passes and hospital employees 15 percent.
That means employees will have 552 passes, which is 343 fewer than employees claimed for the 1998-99 school year, Stout said.
Parking passes were given on a first-come, first-served basis in 1998-99, the first year of the free park-and-ride program. That was because parking officials did not know how popular the program would become and expected to have more passes than parkers.
But commuters snatched up the passes quickly. And because the process started in the summer, when students were away, students got a small number of the passes.
In an attempt to be fair, Stout said she proposed the new policy and presented it to the Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee, a group with representatives from all the constituent groups. The committee approved the idea, although by a divided 4-3 vote.
"Of course, no one wanted to lose something they had last year," Stout said of the split vote. "But to be fair to all groups there needed to be some type of input and we had to have some rational methodology for distributing passes."
If more than the allotted 552 employees request the free passes for park-and-ride lots, then passes will be distributed based on who has the most years of state employment, Stout said.
Although employees are losing 343 passes, Stout is hopeful that the loss won't be as drastic as it sounds. That's because there are currently 442 such passes allocated to employees for the "P Lot" on Estes Drive, but Stout estimates that only about 100 are used. The unused spaces are designated for University departments but then not used, she said.
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