Many Auburn students have had the unpleasant experience of paying $50 for their first parking violation.
That could soon change.
Don Andrae, manager of Parking Services, has proposed several changes to current parking regulations.
If the Traffic and Parking Committee approves these changes at their meeting next month, they could be in effect by the beginning of the 2014 fall semester.
"The number of tickets before you are wheel locked will stay the same," Andrae said. "You will still be wheel locked after five [tickets], and if you don't have a permit, after two."
The cost of each ticket will be the largest change.
"The first violation will be $10," Andrae said. "The second violation will be $20, the third violation will be $40 and then all violations after that will be $50."
According to Andrae, most people who get tickets are one-time offenders.
"$50 is an awful lot for a first-time violation," Andrae said. "A lot of times, we end up working with students to try to reduce them to $10 if we can. Based on what we've seen, it seems better to make the first violation $10 because most people don't get a second violation."
Currently, suspension of parking privileges occurs after the third time a car is towed. With these changes, however, suspension will occur after the tenth ticket.
Andrae said he also wants to stop adding fines when a student does not have a permit.
"The other thing that was happening is if you got a $50 ticket, we could link that to your student account," Andrae said. "And if the student does not have a current permit, then an additional $50 was added to that ticket. There is no need to add an additional $50 just because you do not have a permit."
The parking ticket appeal process could also undergo some changes.
"Right now, if you try to appeal a ticket and you don't have a permit, you cannot appeal," Andrae said. "With these changes, anybody can appeal any ticket, but you can only appeal three tickets in one academic year. They give you seven counter days right now to appeal, and we want to change that to ten. For the second appeal, that was five days and we want to increase that to seven."
Parking services also hopes to increase the price of permits by $10 each academic year, for the next three years.
According to the proposal, this increase is meant to help cover the costs of several projects parking services is working on.
One of these projects is an app, which will allow a student to check whether a parking lot has any empty spaces.
Karley Keith, freshman in hotel and restaurant management, is not a fan of these changes.
"I don't like the idea of getting banned from parking after 10 tickets," Keith said. "It's unfair to punish students more than just ticketing them for the struggle of on-campus parking."
Adam Black, freshman in international business, has a different opinion.
"I think this policy would be good," Black said. "I think it would allow for leniency in mistakes, and consequences for disregard of easily followed rules."
Students may not always agree about parking services, but Andrae said he wants what is best for them.
"All in all, I think these changes will be for the better," Andrae said.
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