Florida State Doubles Hourly Metered Parking Rate

By Vivian El-Salawy on March 29, 2018

Parking is a sensitive subject amongst Florida State’s campus – specifically, the lack of parking spots available. So much so, that it’s become a part of the culture at Florida State University.

Tactics used in order to find parking spots include: showing up to campus hours before your class, avoiding leaving campus until the very end of the day, or following the sight of any moving pedestrian until you realize whether or not they are walking to their car. People have even resorted to picking up strangers from their class and taking them to their car just to get a spot or getting a spot early and napping in their car until it’s time for class.

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While FSU parking has always been an issue amongst students in terms of quantity, the nice thing is that there is no fee associated with parking for students. Students just have to register their vehicles online through their MyFSU. However, now the complaints are regarding the cost of parking in certain areas.

On Monday, March 26th, Florida State’s Transportation Services doubled the rate for one-hour metered parking. The original cost of parking was only 50 cents, which has now been raised to $1. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the change had been announced on the department’s website nearly a week ago, on March 22nd. However, the new change has received a great deal of backlash. Many students resort to these parking spots when the “free” lots and parking garages are full, given that less people are willing to pay hourly for their parking spots.

What people don’t know is that the new rates will contribute to payments for new parking areas, as much as approximately 300 new spaces in the fall of 2018, as well as virtual parking permits for motorcycles and scooters. By increasing the price of these spots, an additional $30,000 is predicted to be raised within the year.

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However, another goal that FSU Transportation Services strives to accomplish through raising the prices of metered parking spots is to encourage alternative forms of transportation – carpooling, biking, taking the bus, and so on. There are many spots on campus that are currently being taken up by cars that are left there for long periods of times (to be used by those living on campus whenever there is a need to leave campus) or those that live as within a mile or two of campus that choose to drive rather than walk or bike.

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With the amount of off campus housing available within the surrounding area, FSU Transportation Services hopes to inspire individuals to find new ways to get to campus that would benefit the overall student body (as well as those that have to travel a little further than the rest to get to class).

Additionally, new technologies will be developing for metered parking spots, such as applications that will allow for you to pay for your metered spot via your smart device (similar to that of Park-N-Pay).

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