Students find parking at UCLA a frustrating business

Monday, September 22, 1997 Students find parking at UCLA a
frustrating business Campus lots the most expensive, overcrowded
among UCs

By Dawnya Pring

Daily Bruin Contributor

In a metropolis like Los Angeles where the car rules supreme,
parking will always be a heated issue. Amidst this chaotic
car-loving city, in the heart of Westwood, an area infamous for
insufficient parking, sits UCLA.

With a combined student and staff population of 55,000 and
approximately 22,000 parking slots, the UCLA parking authorities
have a lot to cope with.

This year UCLA was able to dole out approximately 7,000 parking
spaces to students and 4,000 parking spaces to graduate students
parking as staff. Initially these numbers seem high, but with a
student body hovering at around 35,000 the 11,000 allotted student
parking spaces becomes extremely minuscule.

"There isn’t enough to go around, I wonder who’s getting all the
spots," commented Linda Baca, an incoming transfer student.

Despite what some students deem as an anti-student agenda, the
Parking and Commuter Field Operations Department holds that it is
doing its best with limited resources. UCLA’s parking system deals
with massive numbers of people and space constraints.

Parking at UCLA is assigned to students on a need-based point
system. According to Parking and Commuter Services, this system
allows them to assign parking as efficiently and as fairly as
possible. Each student’s need is determined by the information they
provide on their parking request form. The form asks students
questions such the distance to their workplace and their home.

The parking department contends that the need-based priority
system was developed with students, faculty and staff input.

Even if community input was used to design the permit system,
the community still gripes about the cost.

With a quarterly price tag of $129, UCLA’s undergraduate parking
permits are among the most expensive in the UC system. UC Irvine
charges $81 per permit and UC Santa Barbara’s permits are a steal
at $65 a quarter.

It’s a big moneymaker: with 7,000 student parking spaces
allotted, UCLA receives about $903,000 per year from student
permits. Excluding staff, event, and metered parking, UCLA receives
almost $4 million per year from total permit sales.

The average ticket given by parking enforcement is $30, and they
issue about 100,000 a year, said Steven Rand, manager of
Enforcement, Traffic, and Justification. That’s $3 million alone in
tickets.

Each UC has the authority to dictate their own parking fees. At
UCLA, it’s a lengthy bureaucratic process to determine that price
tag. Committees are formed, formulas are applied and proposals are
made. The paperwork must be approved by the chancellor himself.

According to parking officials, fees are based on many factors
including maintenance, operations, and debt owed on the
construction of the many parking structures.

Not only is parking cheaper at UCI and UCSB, but it is more
plentiful – and has less restrictions.

Unlike UCLA’s parking permits, UCI doesn’t assign a structure
location. UCI’s parking is first come, first serve.

UCI claims they never stop selling parking permits. They have
10,600 spaces designated for student use. This means that UCI with
a student body of only 18,000, half the students of UCLA, has
approximately the same amount of student parking.

UCSB is more likely then UCI to have a few disgruntled parkers.
Although they operate on a first-come, first-serve basis and claim
to never stop selling permits, they don’t guarantee a parking
spot.

UCSB’s one restriction is that permit-holders can’t live within
two miles of campus. This rule has become their saving grace,
because the majority of students live within that boundary.

UCLA has many parking restrictions. If you are one of the lucky
few to receive a coveted parking permit you will then be assigned
to one structure. The parking department doesn’t operate on a
first-come, first-serve basis as most other UCs.

There seems to be little promise of a change in the current
situation. The University has plans to expand Parking Lot 4, the
garage lying under the Wooden Center. This expansion will not
create additional parking, however. It will only replace the loss
of 1,400 parking spaces from the soon-to-be-demolished Lot 14.

Lot 4 will be extended underneath the soccer field and the grass
area in between the men’s and women’s gym.

The estimated cost of construction for this one lot is $32.5
million. The portion under the field will cost $16 million, the
portion under the Dance building is $12 million and then a new
underground entrance will cost $4.5 million.

Lot 4’s underground entrance will replace roadways that now lie
on top of the land. This will allow grass, trees, pedestrian
pathways to replace the existing autocourt off Sunset Blvd.

Lot 14 on Westwood Boulevard is being destroyed to make room for
the new billion-dollar medical facility. Parking officials have
guaranteed to keep lot 14 operating until lot 4’s expansion is
completed. They claim there will be no loss in parking spaces, even
during the construction.