On a campus where the number of people seeking parking spots is
three times the number of spaces available, the phrase “time
is money” hits home at eight minutes per quarter in the
parking meters.
It also means a fine for drivers who abandon their cars in
spaces where the time has expired, a penalty for those who park
beneath street signs that instruct them otherwise, and a team of
parking enforcement officers that are quick to write a ticket.
Mary Vargas, a second-year world arts and culture and political
science student, recalled one of “five or six”
citations she received last year.
She made it to her car parked off Gayley just minutes too late
on a day when parking restrictions forbade street parking between 4
and 6 p.m. to curb traffic congestion.
“I was two minutes after four, and they were writing out
my ticket,” said Vargas.
That violation set her back $60, in addition to her other
tickets that ranged between penalties of $40 to $60 each.
The reputation of the UCLA parking enforcement officers is
infamous: they are quick to spot a car occupying a space illegally
and inflexible when it comes to bending the rules.
“They’re fast. Fast, unreasonable, and they’re
everywhere,” said Jonathan Chew, a third-year student who has
received three citations.
Approximately 65,000 faculty, staff, students, and visitors
compete for 21,000 parking spaces daily, according to
Transportation Services.
Nearly 80,000 citations were written in the 2001-02 fiscal year,
most of which were issued in the parking structures.
Vargas is like many students who are forced to park off-campus
or pay the $7 fee for daily parking because they do not have enough
priority points to obtain a permit.
Last year, she needed a car to commute to an off-campus
internship, but applied all three quarters and did not receive it.
This year, she was granted a residence hall permit for which
she’ll have to pay $192 per quarter.
“I was more excited to receive parking than I was to get
into the university,” she said.
Until this summer, UC campus police and meter readers were able
to use quotas when issuing parking tickets because of a loophole in
state law that exempted the university from a provision that
outlawed quotas.
Senate Bill 2069, which will ban such policies, was passed
unanimously in the Assembly and in the Senate, and was signed by
the governor on July 5.
The law goes into effect on Jan. 1.
Before it was voted on, representatives from the American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union
testified that at UCLA, some parking enforcement officers were
required to write an average of 50 tickets a day.
Transportation officials say this is not true.
“UCLA does not currently, nor has it ever, had a policy
requiring parking enforcement employees to meet citation
quotas,” wrote associate director of Transportation Services
Renee Fortier in a prepared statement.
“UCLA is and has been in complete compliance with the
provisions of Senate Bill 2069.”
Furthermore, she added, the number of citations has never been
used as the sole criterion for promotion, demotion, or dismissal of
a parking enforcement employee.
Revenue generated from parking citations goes toward BruinGo!
and the development of other parking structures, among other
initiatives.
Though most citations are issued in the parking structures, many
are issued on the streets as well. Visitors to campus are
especially prone to receive meter violations because their stops
are shorter than those that warrant purchasing a daily pass.
“A quarter is (worth) eight minutes ““ that’s
ridiculous,” said Erik Matsumo, a third-year
business/marketing student at CSU Fullerton. Matsumo said he
has received four tickets at UCLA, where he visits “at least
twice a month.”
“At Fullerton, it’s a quarter for every 15,”
he said. “Here, I would pay two quarters and I would come
back and there would be a ticket.”
But in spite of tough parking policies and strict enforcement,
perpetrators are usually responsible for their own mistakes.
Matsumo, for example, said all four of his tickets are attributed
to not feeding the meter, an offense that might have been easily
avoided.
But, “I just didn’t care, I kept parking
there,” he said.
He said he plans to visit the campus just as frequently this
year. So how does he plan to evade the parking police?
Matsumo said he will, “be a good person and get some
quarters.”
The application for winter quarter parking permits is available
on Sept. 30, and is due on October 31. Permits are issued on a
need-based point system that is detailed online at
www.transportation.ucla.edu. The Web site also lists tips on how to
avoid citations.