The city of Phoenix is increasing parking-meter fees and extending enforcement times, which may affect students who commute to the Downtown campus.
The meters, which formerly cost $0.60 per hour, now cost $1.50 per hour. The meters are also now enforced from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
All parking-meter funds go into the city’s general fund, which
finances things like libraries, road repairs and law enforcement.
The changes in meter fees were announced March 16.
Some students are less than pleased with the new regulations.
“I’m in class for four hours a day, which costs me $6.00 in change,” nursing sophomore Amanda Fortune said. “I’ve gotten two tickets already since the meters have been enforced.”
Fortune said she didn’t buy a parking permit because she thought it would be easier to use the meters.
“It’s made it much harder though, especially just having to find $6.00 in change,” she said. “I also have some classes that run past 5 p.m. Before, that helped me, and now it’s going to make things more complicated.”
According to a press release on the city of Phoenix Web site, 2,600 meters are in the process of being changed to reflect the new rate and enforcement times. With the new hours and increased rates, the city is expecting a $1 million increase to the city’s general fund per year, according to the release.
“There hasn’t been an increase since 1992. That’s a long time,” city of Phoenix representative Sina Matthes said. “We raised our prices and changed our enforced hours to match those of cities similar to our size.”
Journalism junior Caroline Austerman tried to a purchase a parking permit for the Downtown campus in the fall but found she had missed the cutoff date, and they were sold out.
Before the change, she paid about $8.40 a week for parking for the 14 hours a week she has class at the Downtown campus. Austerman will now have to pay about $21 for those same hours.
“I’m going to have to find other places to park. I might as well park at the $5 lots,” Austerman said. “I think that if ASU created more parking spaces at a more affordable rate, students wouldn’t be stuck parking at the meters.”
Matthes suggests students look to ASU for alternative parking solutions.
“This is a citywide change — not something that just affected ASU students,” Matthes said.
Fortune said some of the meters around the city accept credit cards, and she thinks it would be better if all the meters worked that way.
“It generally sucks that they are changing the meters, but if they all accepted credit cards, that would improve the situation,” she said.
Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu.
