News

Parking’s paper trail: Cars outnumber spaces

Students have paid over $600,000 in fines and fees in 2011

Sergio Afonso

Full lots and rows of cars in the Collins Center for the Arts parking lot reflect issues with commuter parking at peak hours.

By Lauren Reeves

Posted on Sept. 29, 2011, at 1:34 a.m.

With the daily battle to find a space, it’s hard to imagine there are 6,755 parking spots on the University of Maine campus.

However, with the many handicapped, service loading, visitor, timed areas and loading zones taking chunks out of that number, the supply of student parking spots dwindles.

Within a year, the university hopes to bring in a consulting service to analyze on-campus parking.

The university follows a national standard that most colleges and universities abide by, said Alan Stormann, assistant director for security, parking and transportation. There is a maximum of two commuter permits given for every commuter space, while 1.2 permits are allowed for every one resident spot and 1.4 for every faculty space.

There are 2,120 commuter parking spots on campus and 1,887 resident spots.

In 2009, the number of parking permits sold to commuters totaled 4,069, and in 2010, 3,893 were sold. As for residents, in 2010 there were 1,883 permits sold and 2,063 in 2009. None of these numbers represents the maximum amount of parking permits the university is allowed to sell to commuters and residents.

“Commuters are always coming and going on campus,” Stormann said, validating the sale of more permits than there are spots.

“Technically, we do have enough parking,” said Elaine Clark, executive director of Facilities Management, Real Estate and Planning for UMaine.

Clark said the university hopes to bring in Gray-based Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers, Inc., to survey the campus and provide a transportation and parking study. Clark said the university has done similar studies in the past.

A study on the parking and transportation aspects of campus could provide the university with essential information of how to best utilize and control parking on campus.

Fiscal year information for 2011 on parking fines and permits shows that over $600,000 was collected from student permit fees and fines, with more than $83,000 made from staff permits and fines.

According to the 2011 fiscal year report, money collected from parking fees and tickets was funneled into a nearly $1 million fund spent on roadway maintenance, snow removal, the Bangor Area Transportation program’s free service for students and general parking services.

There are plans to further develop the campus and take steps to foster a more sustainable and green environment. These plans are still conceptual under the Campus Master Plan.

Sketches of future walkways and proposed buildings can be seen in the 178-page Master Plan Report. Within that lies a conceptual plan for the university that could improve parking.

The plan falls under the Proposed Access and Circulation Framework and will decrease vehicle traffic in the center of campus, bringing that traffic to the outskirts of campus, essentially creating a loop around the perimeter.

According to the plan, parking garages would be built on the edges of campus.

The focus on garages would be to encourage campus users to “park once and walk” with an enhanced pedestrian network. The interior of the campus would remain reserved for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

“This is a truly aspirational program,” Clark said. “We cannot afford it right now.”

The plan for parking garages could reduce pavement on campus while “nice grassy areas could be re-established,” Clark said.

Parking garages are priced per space to construct, and Clark gave an estimate of $20,000 per space to build one at UMaine. Clark is unsure how the campus would view the high cost.

“No one would want to pay” to park in a parking garage on top of construction costs, Clark said. “We’re just not there yet.”

Although the plan will not provide any immediate change for campus drivers, there is hope that park-and-ride lots at off-campus locations in Old Town and Orono can be established. The park-and-ride lots “could take 10 to 12 cars off campus,” according to Clark.

Clark said park-and-ride lots have been looked into before, but shuttle vans were not available at that time.

“It will definitely be looked into again,” she said.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 29th, 2011, 1:34 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.