In the last year, sophomore Adam Teitelbaum has received $250 worth of tickets from Syracuse University Parking and Transit Services.

The fines, which accumulated from six to nine tickets, were for parking without a permit and for parking in the fire lane in front of his South Campus apartment, where Teitelbaum said he parks because there are no available spaces nearby.

He has a permit displayed in his car, but admitted it may not have been visible behind a heavily-tinted window.

‘It was kind of unfair because people are paying for a service that was not provided,’ he said. ‘The thing that they need to do, as a school, is just to build more parking.’

SU Parking and Transit Services sells more parking permits than there are available spaces, which means the most-coveted spots are often taken, according to Director of Parking Services Al Sauer. This policy, coupled with a lack of main campus parking – especially for students – leads to students parking illegally.

Each year, Parking Services issues about 12,000 tickets, for violations that include illegal parking, parking on SU-owned lots without a permit and parking in fire lanes, Sauer said. And of those 12,000 tickets, fewer than half – 5,000 – are appealed each year.

What are the consequences?

The cost of each ticket ranges from $20 for parking illegally to $30 for parking without a permit to $100 for parking with a fake permit, according to Parking Services’ regulations.

Getting towed costs the towing company (and eventually the offender) $125, Sauer said.

‘That usually is a wake up call because it’s a lot cheaper to buy a permit and follow the rules,’ he said. ‘We’ll generally be forgiving, certainly on a first violation. We’re not as forgiving in fire lanes and handicapped spaces – for obvious reasons.’

About 85 percent of first violations are repealed as a ‘courtesy void,’ Sauer said.

The appeal process is not as forgiving for repeat offenders, he said. But Parking Services does offer the opportunity for those with mounting fines to set up a payment plan.

Repeat offenders, whether they’re students, faculty or staff, generally aren’t concerned with the consequences, he said.

After getting several tickets, some students either get frustrated or scared, Sauer said. Instead of addressing the situation, they avoid the situation and keep accumulating tickets.

Teitelbaum said Sauer voided $100 of his debt, and he agreed to pay the remaining $150 ‘just to avoid the frustration.’

However, Teitelbaum has discussed possible options to improve the parking situation on campus with Sauer.

The solution to parking issues is accepting that it is difficult to have the most convenient space, Sauer said. Instead of trying not to get caught, the headache of paying tickets and retrieving a car that’s been towed can be avoided by playing by the rules. Often, this means taking the shuttle to class if a student lives on South Campus.

‘The biggest thing here on campus is close parking to where you want to be,’ he said. ‘Some students say, ‘well, I’m not going to take the bus, I’m going to go drive on campus and if I get caught, then I get caught.”

Where is the parking?

There are about 10,800 cars with SU parking permits at any given time – 6,500 to students and 4,300 to faculty and staff – and 9,119 spaces available, not including restricted lots, Sauer said.

Despite this difference, a lack of spaces is usually not a problem, even during events at the Carrier Dome, when parking is granted to those attending the game, he said.

‘It’s not an issue of ‘I can’t find any place to park,” Sauer said. ‘It’s ‘I can’t park as conveniently as I did.”

A common rule of thumb in the parking industry is to sell about 10 percent more permits than spaces are available, Sauer said. At SU, this rule applies to lots that are used exclusively by faculty and staff or shared with students. Lots and garages that are almost exclusively used by students are not over-sold.

‘We can’t always meet their needs for the most convenient or closest parking to their office or dorm, but we certainly are able to meet the demands of parking somewhere on university-owned property,’ Sauer said.

What happened to my spot?

The Adams Street garage was built to replace the space lost when construction began on the Life Sciences Complex, Sauer said.

As SU continues to build, Parking Services will have to keep up with the demand for parking, despite the fact that space will be more limited.

Steve Arcidiacono, a sophomore psychology major who lives in Watson Hall, said he chose to pay $594 for the academic year to park in the nearby Adams Street garage, rather than shuttling from the surface lot at Manley Field House for $299. Another advantage, he said, was the roof, which keeps snow off his car in the winter.

But last semester, 40 spaces in the Adams Street garage were reserved for faculty and staff – even on weekends – and has consequently forced more students to park on its roof, Sauer said.

‘I felt like I got slammed with it,’ Arcidiacono said. ‘One day, you just couldn’t park there.’

The reserved spaces, which are on the inside track of the first and second floors of the garage, are in the best location because they’re easy to get to, he said. And unlike spaces on the perimeter of the garage, they won’t get any snow on them.

‘There’s usually space on the roof, but nobody wants to get that,’ Arcidiacono said, adding that it is especially annoying because he pays the garage rate.

Sauer defended the policy that prevents students from parking in the Adams Street garage’s reserved spaces on nights and weekends by saying it’s likely that one or two students would forget to move their cars before faculty and staff arrive.

‘I hate to say that we’re doing it for that one or two that don’t follow it, but basically that’s driving the fact of being cautious about opening up those spaces,’ he said. ‘If we knew that the compliance factor would be 100 (percent), then certainly.’

Faculty and staff are in and out of spaces quickly, while students often leave their cars parked for days, Sauer said.

‘Generally students come in, if they’re in a residential garage, they don’t move their car a lot,’ he said. ‘Most students, they pull in, they park, they’re there for days on end.’

Garage parking for the academic year costs $594, according to a Parking Services pamphlet. This is nearly double the $299 it costs to park on surface lots near the Quad, and more than nine times the $64 it costs to park on commuter lots further from campus, such as South Campus.

The rates are determined by convenience and maintenance costs, Sauer said. Garages cost about $18,000 per space to build, and cost a lot to maintain. Surface lots are close to campus – and are generally small – which means maintenance cost per space is high. Commuter lots are both far from campus and large, making maintenance costs minimal.

Where to park during games?

During Dome events, such as an SU basketball game, the Orange lots, which many students park in on nights and weekends, are reserved for those attending.

‘You kind of have to pre-plan and know their schedule,’ said Stephanie Woods, a junior anthropology major. ‘They should make it more clear when Orange lots are open and the rules. I just figured that out as I went.’

While Parking Services won’t write a ticket if a car is parked in the lot it is assigned during a basketball game, getting into the lot is a different story, as game-goers must pay to park.

Elizabeth Brickley, a first-year law student, said she’s been turned away from parking at the West lots during games because she wasn’t willing to pay.

Instead, students and faculty with permits are redirected to the lots further from campus.

‘I wouldn’t want to walk there myself,’ said Nicole Staring, a first-year law student, regarding the other lot.

Is it safe?

Last Wednesday, a man attempted to steal from and assaulted a female student walking along Standart Street, which lies between two of the West lots, said Interim Chief Tony Callisto of Public Safety.

‘We’re on the cusp – you go right down the hill, and the neighborhood’s not so great,’ Staring said.

Since December 2003, 29 of the 80 counts of criminal mischief, larceny, burglary and robbery on SU-owned parking lots have occurred at the West lots, which are located on Stadium Place, Henry Street and Standart Street.

The West-campus lots are covered by one Public Safety post, Callisto said. There is a proposal to put more blue lights into the area, but each light costs about $25,000.

The last time a blue light call reported a crime in progress was three years ago, he said. But they do serve as a deterrent.

‘The reality is people have cell phones,’ Callisto said.

To contrast that, in accordance to a Syracuse city statute, parking garages are required to have either surveillance cameras or be patrolled by a security officer every hour. Garages on campus are toured once each hour by Public Safety.

What about the future?

Sauer acknowledged the growing need for parking on campus.

‘Obviously, the campus expands, and as it expands it’s trying to meet an academic mission,’ he said. ‘We know that there are plans for increased housing. What the impact on housing and what we’re going to do as we go forward, we haven’t begun to think about that.’

More sophomores are bringing cars to campus, and more freshmen are requesting parking permits, Sauer said.

Anytime SU builds on an existing parking area, those spaces are replaced as part of the project, he said.

‘As the institution grows and changes, parking is always a part of the discussion,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to be something that’s left off the table.’

Published on January 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm