No changes to base-lot permit rates, bus passes
Although some campus policies and parking rates will change next fiscal year to begin to address a budget deficit in Transportation Services, individual base-lot permit prices will remain unchanged and the popular free bus pass program will continue.
“Our employees are already facing many difficult choices related to their compensation and benefits,” says Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration. “While we need to find a solution to our deficit, we believe that it is in the best interest of the university to keep these costs affordable right now while we study alternatives to an immediate fee increase.”
Changes that will take effect include:
- Restricting parking lots during major special events to only event permit holders and creating specific parking lots for base-lot users.
- Increasing parking-citation fees.
- Creating an hourly rate for visitors in garages to replace current half-day and all-day permits and establish daytime and nighttime rates.
- Moving away from non-dated permits for visitors in ungated parking lots to a reservation system in parking structures when new hardware is installed.
- Increasing departmental reserved-stall fees, increasing the cost of “business alternate” permits to one-third of the base-lot rate and increasing bagged-meter fees from $12 to $15 a day, to cover labor costs.
- Requiring all departments that have a reserved parking space to pay for that space on an annual basis.
- Continuing conversion of state disabled parking spaces on campus to UW disabled parking, where applicable.
- Creating specific parking spaces for departmental and service access to reduce conflicts with base-lot permit holders.
- Changing the hours of control for all campus parking lots to allow for evening control of those lots.
“These changes are needed to begin to correct a $1 million structural deficit, continue current programs, look ahead to future parking needs, and to ensure that we’re able to continue supporting sustainable alternative transportation as a way to get to and around our campus,” says Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities.
The popular campus shuttle and the faculty-staff Madison Metro bus-pass program will continue to be 100 percent subsidized, according to Transportation Services Director Patrick Kass. About 14,000 people take advantage of the bus-pass program.
“People find the bus-pass program useful on a personal level and environmentally responsible on a social level, and it adds to our campus’s menu of alternative transportation options,” says Kass. “We feel this is an important benefit to retain.”
More information is available online.