Keira Marie Terchowitz, a University of Idaho junior, can’t afford a parking permit at the beginning of the year — so she doesn’t have one.
But Terchowitz relies on her car to commute to campus, because walking from her living space to campus usually does not fit into her schedule.
“I completely rely on having to pay the metered parking — a few dollars each day — and then I rely on the parking lots being free after 5:00 p.m.,” Terchowitz said. “It honestly all depends on if I have enough money to pay for parking that day. If I don’t have enough money to pay the meter, and I have no other way to get to school, then my only options are to either take a parking ticket for the day or just not go to class.”
Terchowitz said she gets parking tickets constantly, even double-ticketed sometimes.
“I have definitely gotten to my car before, and there have been two parking tickets on the dash. And I was confused, because I thought that if I got one for the day that was it. But apparently, they will ticket you again. It’s unfair.” Terchowitz said.
The University of Idaho’s Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) information specialist, Robert Mitchell, said the double-ticketing method exists to incentivize those who park on campus to relocate their vehicles instead of riding a singular citation out as long as they can.
“If we didn’t have the ability to give another citation, then what would happen is people would say, ‘Basically I’m going to use a $25 meter citation for the next three days,’” Mitchell said. “And so, there’s got to be a way to convince folks who don’t mind dropping 25 bucks that they need to go ahead and take care of the situation, rather than just letting it sit.”
Depending on the metered spot, after hour parking varies. They can become free at 9 p.m., be 24-hours or other options, Robert said.
While most parking permit lots become available without a permit between 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. to park, Robert made it clear that those parking on campus should always read the signs.
Overnight parking is not allowed from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. unless the proper permits are used. This time is used for snow removal and other maintenance.
Currently there is not a comprehensive map of campus parking meter enforcement times based on location, although Mitchell said UI PTS plans to create one.
PTS does not continually ticket vehicles indefinitely — they switch to take steps to contact vehicle owners and begin to send warnings.
“Our office manager, Summer Howard, actually emails people if it looks like they either are not checking on their vehicle, or they’re racking up citations,” Mitchell said.
If nothing is done after this email warning period, another email warning will be sent out to notify the owner of the ticketed vehicle that they are eligible for a wheel lock.”
More information about campus parking and ticketing can be found on the UI PTS website.
Ellen Dennis can be reached at [email protected]