Parking at Auburn has seen quite a bit of changes. From changes to parking permit prices in 2014 to changes in parking ticket charges in 2015, parking will change again for the 2015-16 year.
Faculty, staff and students will no longer receive a parking hang tag when purchasing their permit. Parking Services will be using a new license plate recognition system for enforcement.
Registration for permits will open for faculty and staff July 1 and students can register July 6, according to Don Andrae, manager of Parking Services.
Andrae said they will download license plate numbers and the zones assigned to each one to the Parking Services trucks. The trucks have a camera that takes photos of the plates.
"It sounds more difficult in a way, we've had some people say, 'Well how are you going to know if people belong in there,' but as I said, the way the database says this license plate belongs in this zone, and it just comes up on the screen and flags it in a big red thing and beeps and says, 'Op, nope this one does not," Andrae said.
Other universities such as Texas Tech use this system, according to Andrae.
He said they will still be distributing permits for bicycles, motorcycles, retirees, vendors and administrators.
According to Andrae, they tested the system in the RO parking lots. It was found that a truck could scan every car in the lot in 30 minutes. They also found the truck could still pick up every plate number it passed at 25 mph.
"We've had a truck on campus since last January, have been checking it out, see how it works, it's worked very well," Andrae said.
According to Andrae, they have given out tickets to people who forget to put their parking permit back up after having their apartment permit displayed.
"You have to have a permit to park in apartment complexes, and it's much more important to have that one up, because most apartment complexes will tow ya in a minute if you don't have it up," Andrae said.
He also said Parking Services had problems with people with multiple cars registered forgetting to move their permit to the other car.
"As long as we have the cars registered, and people remember to let us know when they change their license plate, it's going to make it easier on us from an enforcement standpoint," Andrae said.
Barbara Barnes, 14-year Parking Services employee, said she thinks the system will be easier for faculty, workers, staff and students.
"I think it's gonna be great, I think it's gonna do a good job, you know sometimes you have to tweak stuff a little bit to get it going how it's supposed to go, but other than that, I think it's going to be wonderful," Barnes said.
In the new system two vehicles per person can be registered to one permit. For more than two vehicles, there will be a $20 charge.
According to Andrae there is two percentage error when reading the plate number, specifically with the AU personalized license plates where the AU was being picked up and scanned as part of the license plate.
Andrae said Genetec, the company that manufactures the system, went back and redid the pixel representations on the license plates.
However, in some cases, the workers will have to manually check the plate. For example, Andrae said people who back-in to parking spaces will not receive a violation, and the employee will have to get out and enter the number in manually.
Andrae said it takes five minutes or less to download all the plate numbers and zones to a truck, and they will be downloading at least four times a day in the fall.
This past fall semester, Parking Services used the new system for enforcement even though the hang tags were still on the vehicles, according to Andrae.
Andrae said Parking Services has approximately 1,000-1,500 hang tags leftover from year to year.
"Well, it is going to be a lot, certainly, a lot more friendly to the economy from one standpoint, and the environment especially, you know at the end of the year you have this plastic hangtag, 'What do you do with it?' Andrae said. "It goes into a landfill somewhere, so actually from an environmental standpoint we're helping the environment."
The cost of registration will be the same as last year: A-Zone will be $80, B-Zone will be $40 and motorcycle will be $15 and users will not have to pay for the hang tag, since the the permit is the vehicle, according to Andrae.
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