After six months of discussing parking concerns, the parking task force has a plan designed to ease the problem at the U.
The recommendations, formally submitted to President Bernie Machen on Wednesday, address the parking and transportation problems on campus. The eight recommendations include a mass transit marketing campaign, enhancement of Utah Transit Authority services, carpooling, a parking structure and a parking fee increase.
“One recommendation alone won’t work, I think they all are very important and need to work together,” said Ben Lowe, president of the Associated Students of the University of Utah, and co-chairman of the task force. “The task force responded with realistic recommendations, I think it’s a major step.”
ASUU leaders asked Machen to form a task force in October after they noticed that parking-related issues were foremost in the minds of many students. When requesting the formation of the task force, Lowe said the group would look for “realistic” solutions to the parking problem, as well as a whole plan that will examine all aspects of the parking issue.
The eight recommendations continue or expand programs already in place. The first recommendation is a marketing campaign similar to the effort during Fall Semester to encourage students to ride the bus or use TRAX during the Olympics when large portions of campus parking would be handed over to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. The successful campaign increased mass transit usage, according to the task force report, and task force members believe that an annual campaign, specifically aimed at incoming students would permanently increase mass-transit usage.
Norm Chambers, director of auxiliary services, who oversees Parking and Transportation Services, believes that students need to be aware of the free bus and TRAX services available through their student identification cards.
“I think maybe there was an assumption that everyone knew the bus pass existed,” Chambers said.
The task force recommended the U build a parking structure, but not until 2006. Until then, the task force believes the U should continue negotiations to lease 400 spaces from the parking structure near the Latter-day Saint Institute of Religion, which will open in Fall Semester 2003.
The task force suggested building a parking structure only after the U assesses the impact of the TRAX line going to the health sciences area. If the campus still needs a parking structure, the task force recommends an 800-space structure be built where the old public safety building stands. Such a structure would cost $8.8 million, according to the task force’s report.
The task force hopes to fund its recommendations by raising the transportation fee for each student by 17 percent every year starting in 2003. Students currently pay 84 cents for transportation for each credit hour, which pays for the free bus passes provided to all U students.
The task force also hopes to see the shuttles funded through the transportation fee instead of by the revenue received from parking permit sales.
The task force also recommends that the price of permits for the A lots increase while the cost of parking in the U and E lots stays constant until the year 2005 when it will begin to increase according to inflation.