During every day of school, students and associates of Virginia Tech make unwanted donations to Parking Services in the form of parking citations. Parking Services collects about $648,000 of parking citation money for the fall and spring semesters, excluding weekends and holidays. According to parking services, an average of 135 citations are issued daily.
When you receive a parking citation for parking in an improper spot you are charged a $30 fee. To put this in perspective, by making an error while parking you are required to pay nearly half the price of a student semester permit.
Students at this university are paying anywhere from $14,629 to $27,902 for tuition and other expenses. It is just not ethical to be hit with a huge $30 fee, especially when you consider how ill-equipped the school is in handling parking and also the money that Tech collects from our tuition.
There are many solutions that have been suggested, albeit to deaf ears. In all cases it must be said that the outright fee of $30 is not right or justified. One such solution is to gradually increase the parking citation fee with every additional citation. For example, the first citation could result in a $5 fee and increase by increments of $5 with each additional offense with a reset in the increments yearly. Another proposed solution is to give a pardon to the first offense and then have a flat fee of $15 for every offense afterward.
The power to change the rules lies in your hands, the student willing to take initiative in changing policy. We students are the heart and soul of this school and should have a voice in how it is run. You have the opportunity to be involved in real change with only a few minutes of effort. If you feel that the parking system is inadequate and in need of change, I recommended contacting Steve Mouras, director of transportation and campus services, at stmouras@vt.edu and voicing your opinion and suggestions.
Alex George
Sophomore electrical
Engineering major
A version of this article appeared in the Apr 29 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Or you culd just park in the right spot...
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I parked in the cage with a pass that was on the dashboard and got a ticket even though i was in the right spot. I went to fight it and they said that they got my plates wrong and would wipe one ticket but i had to appeal the other. I appealed the other and lost, they need a review board that is outside of their department.
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Students were never the heart and soul of this school, the Board of Visitors takes those titles. Here's a prediction: nothing students or the SGA ever do to change these fines will be without BOV permission and support. Feel powerless? We are.
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If you make noise, we can make changes. Policy change can happen - it just is a long, tedious process. Just know that whatever you want changed at the beginning of the year won't go into effect until a year later.
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You want to impose a fine for parking in an improper spot that is almost the same the amount you would pay for parking in a metered spot all day long?
A call to action for change over crap like this is why so many legitimate issues fall on 'deaf ears'.
Yes; parking availability is an issue and it is being addressed.
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I thought they were building that huge parking building so they can bulldoze the other lots and put buildings up, and not really doing much to increase parking
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Why should the ticket policy on campus be any different from ticket policies of towns/cities? "Real-world" police aren't going to give you a warning when your meter runs out or you're parked in front of a fire hydrant.
Pay your fine and park legally next time.
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I think in the "real world" you would have a full time job and $30 would not mean as much as it would to say broke college students.
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Only 30 dollars? I got a ticket more than that, seems like they are already being more reasonable than when I went to Tech. The fine is there to discourage people from parking where they are not allowed. If it was only five bucks, pretty much anyone would just ignore the rules and pay such a small fine. My suggest is to park where you are allowed to park or roll the dice and pay the fine if you are caught.
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Another idea is living downtown/next to campus so you don't need to drive everyday. Most people at UVa, UNC and UMd get along perfectly fine w/o cars. Folks here have the option of using the bus, but many choose to drive, by themselves, in their metal boxes, to class everyday. Doing this is a privilege and it should come at a price. There should be no entitlement to a parking spot 5 feet from your classroom door and parking illegally is discouraged. Expect higher parking costs and a fine structure that will likely go up, rather than down. Gas prices are also going to continue to rise. People can either complain or live closer. It's more fun living near the place you work (school) and play (downtown) anyway.
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easier said than done, its like saying oh whatever just shell out that endless amount of money you have and get a place right next to campus, the other campuses you mention have different infrastructure with many apartment buildings next to the college, most of VT's collegiate apartments aren't or are usually a lot more expensive.
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Someone said this earlier and I think they said it best:
As someone that relies on the BT I can tell you it sucks balls. It's never on time, crowded and smells of BO. There is no problem with people driving, it's cold as hell 8 months a year I don't care how close you are to campus people need to drive. We need to expand parking on campus so more students will drive. We can sell more parking passes and use that money for other things like the BT.
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It will be reliable next year. You will have tools at your disposal that allows you to see where the bus is at all times.
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The signs are easy to see, you know where you can and can't park. Stop complaining and lose your sense of entitlement!
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You deserve a ticket for writing this stupid letter.
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I was actually in the process or writing a similar letter, you beat me too it. I mostly agree where your coming from.
During my 4 years here, I've gotten 4 tickets. My first one was my mistake as a first semester freshman, I forgot to move my car Sunday night to the cage. My second and third were given to me less than 12 hours apart during RA training 2 weeks before school even started. I was one spot into the carpool lane zone despite me checking the sign before I parked and the paint was missing and the sign didn't say otherwise I successfully appealed both and won.
My third one last fall was because I wasn't aware you couldn't park on the drill field until after 8pm because there was no sign (to this day) that said so. and I got my ticket 10 minutes after parking near the library at 7:30pm. I lost that appeal despite me proving there was no sign.
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Um, there is a sign, it's right there where Otey St intersects with the drill field
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My point is, while a parking ticket system is necessary for enforcement, they way they go about many tickets is very sketchy and immoral IMO.
I've heard (from friends) of them ticketing people and quickly walking away while someone is still in the car and it is running. (i.e. parking for less than 2min dropping off ect.)
To add, the drill field policy for grad students isn't properly notified in the signs (I walked around the drill field and checked). Therefore IMO it only points to parking services doing everything they can within legal bounds to swindle their already paying students for even more money.
Of course that makes sense, because they are paying off the parking deck project among other things. I guess it's an unfortunate necessary evil.
I just believe that since us students are paying for a lot of these rights and privileges initially, we should be provided with what we are paying for. All of my tickets are given to students who already pay for a parking permit and are victimized due to inadequate signs around the drill field among some other areas.
That IMO is where they step over the line and is just wrong.
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***Correction: All of my tickets that were given to me are given to many other students every day due to flaws in their signs and the system in general.
It doesn't stop there, hopefully my letter about my experience with this semester's dinning flex plan and the ticket lottery system will make it on here. Those are even some better stories about some of Virginia Tech's sketchy policies designed to pick pocket students.
Virginia Tech's self interests (if not already) are similar to a for-profit corporation centered towards research alone where students come 5th....not a university where tuition paying student's well being and education are a priority.
Without the students...there is no research...there is no Virginia Tech. Do not bite the hand that feeds you VT.
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PrEtty sure they give you the parking rules and regulations when you get your permit. Signs are for your benefit, but it's your responsibility to know the rules in areas where signs aren't posted.
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The cost of parking permits are going up...
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