If we were to play a word association game, the term ASU Parking and Transit Services wo-uld undoubtedly elicit a barrage of expletives.
There are too few spaces for 50,000 students. Decals anywhere other than Lot 59 are impossible to get unless you camp outside PTS the night before they go on sale. And don't even get me started about the parking meter situation. You've heard it all before.
So, when I was going through my spring break photos the other day and happened across the one of a five-hour meter at the University of Oregon, I became inspired. Inspired, that is, to find out if my worst suspicions were true and that ASU does, in fact, have the worst parking in the PAC-10.
As it turns out, after careful scrutiny and a tedious multiple regression analysis (read: perusing parking policies after a six-pack) the answer is: almost.
Let's get back to the meter situation for a minute. In this category, ASU -- with meters that don't even last the length of one class period -- does rank at the bottom of my unofficial standings. The best are Oregon, the University of Southern California and (gulp) UA.
Yeah, that's right, even UA is better at this than we are. It's appalling, I know.
Oregon, with several 10-hour meters and convenient five-hour meters, takes the cake. USC and UA both have four-hour meters. In fact, the majority of UA meters can be used for four hours.
In the non-metered free visitor parking area, Oregon is again the winner. Simply by asking at the information booth, one can acquire a temporary parking permit ranging in time from a day to three weeks. USC also has free one-day visitor passes.
The "most convenient parking" award goes to Washington State University. WSU has a 24-hour garage underneath its centrally located library and undergraduate education building, neither of which requires a permit.
Now for the good news: ASU isn't the worst in overall parking availability. That dubious honor goes to the University of Washington. The Huskies have no single-driver parking on campus until after 4 p.m. on weekdays. There are limited spaces for carpoolers, a policy that is rather strictly enforced, and all other student parking is farther away than lot 59. Those permits are only available on the first day of classes, which I assume leads to a frenzy far worse than the campers outside ASU PTS have ever seen.
We're also not the most expensive in decal rates or visitor parking. Though limited, our decals are actually the cheapest in the PAC-10. And at $1 an hour or $5 for the day, our visitor garage rates pale in comparison to Cal's. There, all-day garage parking would run you $18.
Though we may not be the worst, by my calculations we are in a three-way tie for seventh with Cal and UCLA in terms of parking availability. If you were to factor in the procedure for getting permits, we might drop down another notch.
UCLA combats its parking shortage problems by assigning permits on a point system based on class standing, employment obligations and commuter distance. Whether this is more or less fair than lining up on April 30 outside PTS and calling SunDial frantically while you wait is up for debate, it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense.
Cal offers daily parking permits and occasional parking booklets with multiple permits for those who don't drive every day but still need a lot now and then.
ASU does none of this.
I encourage all of you to share this information with the ASU Parking Nazis -- er, PTS -- when you're trying to get fall permits next month or the next time you run from a 75-minute class back to your car only to find that your expired one-hour meter has just been ticketed.
Scott Phillips has gotten so many tickets at ASU he's probably paid for someone's tuition by now. Reach him at scott.phillips@asu.edu.
