Parking fee increase necessary, warranted

Austin is a lead attendant for UCLA Parking Services and a
fourth-year student at UCLA.  

By Christine Austin

“I’d be more willing to transfer from this school
than pay $7,” one whiny student complains as she waits for
her daily parking permit from the main parking kiosk of UCLA.
Another student, surprised that there was even parking available,
snarls, “I remember when parking was $5. It pisses me
off!”

Whine, complain, bitch, moan, get pissed off. As a UCLA Parking
Services attendant, I hear it all. But you know what? I don’t
care, because the complaints are all unjustified.

Daily parking is going up to $7 on July 1, but people need to
understand the reasons before they complain. Parking Services
brought in $10,443,080 in daily $6 sales alone last year.
That’s a lot of money, and the UCLA community is probably
thinking Parking Services is greedy and raising the rates just
because it can, but contrary to what many think, Parking Services
does not operate like Westwood apartment landlords. Parking
Services needs to raise the rates.

There are approximately 23,000 spaces with stack parking on
campus. However, there are roughly 65,000 people coming and going
to UCLA every day. With such a high volume of traffic, the
university is currently unable to accommodate academic conferences
and events (there were 11,200 events held on campus during
2001-02), to meet professional schools’ needs, to alleviate
the large student parking wait list, and to reduce the impact on
Westwood parking.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “Why
doesn’t UCLA get its act together and build more parking
structures?” It’s not that easy. In addition to the
costs for constructing additional parking, Parking Services also
has to pay for an increase in rent for the ground upon which the
structures are built (from $2.9 million to $3.4 million per
year).

Additional expenses include an increase in fuel and insurance
expenses, maintenance initiatives to repair and improve the
painting and lighting, and seismic upgrade requirements. All of
these costs are just some of reasons why Parking Services needs to
raise rates.

The UCLA community should feel lucky that the daily rate is only
going up $1. To afford all of the changes, additions, and repairs,
the $7 parking fee and the permit fee increases for 2002-03 are
actually lower than what was projected in 1999. Parking Services
was able to keep the increase down to only one dollar until June of
2005. But instead of feeling lucky, people complain.

The UCLA community should not only feel lucky, but also
obligated to pay more to park. Let me explain.

There’s a thing called “User Fees.” It’s
the increasing of rates and fees for those who use the facilities
and/or commodities to make changes, repairs or improvements.

Neither the taxpayers of Los Angeles County nor the State of
California should pay for the construction of new parking
structures. The people who visit, attend and work at UCLA should
pay up for Parking Services’ projects because they’re
the ones who use the facilities. The 2,159 additional spaces are
being built for them, not for some old lady up in Eureka,
Calif.

It would be impossible to build enough parking lots for all of
those who come to UCLA each day. Parking Services really wants to
reduce traffic growth by 25 percent by 2005.

Instead of complaining, we should help them. Did you know that
all applications for carpooling are automatically approved if the
applicants meet the simple requirements? Right now there are only
2,257 participants carpooling out of the 65,000 people who come and
go daily to UCLA. This number is absurdly low.

If you want to carpool, you’ll be approved, and you
won’t have to pay $7 each day. Problem solved.

When I mention the $7 rate to some students who pull up to the
parking kiosk, there is the common reply, “Well, I’ll
just have to apply for a quarterly permit then.”
Unfortunately, that’s wishful thinking.

This past fall more than 10,000 students applied for parking
permits and only approximately 5,800 students actually got one. And
for those who won’t get a permit? “I guess I’ll
have to pay each day. I’d have to, wouldn’t I?”
Not if you carpool.

Or you could transfer to another university before having to pay
$7. But good luck. UC San Diego and USC also charge $7 for daily
parking. UC Berkeley will charge you $11 for the day. If you fork
over $20, UC San Francisco will let you park.

But here is a solution: transfer to UC Davis to park for $4 a
day. But are you seriously willing to trade in your UCLA degree to
save three bucks on daily permits? I didn’t think so.