ASU has increased their parking substantially over the past few years with plans to continue with increased pricing. Two years ago I bought a parking pass for $200. Expensive, I admit, but necessary because I was living pretty far away from campus. The next year they increased the price of my parking lot to $500. I paid again, though I found myself working extra jobs just to pay it off. When we moved less than a mile from campus I thought to myself "I will never have to dealing with parking again" and I avoided paying the upped rate of $700 for my lot.
But what ASU has also done is made sure that every possible parking option around campus turns a profit. So open lots or open street parking, which in the past has been free, has know been converted into metered parking. I'm thinking that the City of Tempe is in on this as well because other open streets and parking options away from campus have also been turned into metered spaces or turned into "no parking" zones. So no matter where you park you will either have to pay or pay a fine for illegally parking.
All this being said, there are a select few parking spaces that not many people know about. Yesterday, I had a heavy load of books to take to campus so I could not utilize my traditional form of transportation, which is a 1969 Schwinn Supersport bicycle I figured I would just drive and park in "secret" spots. Plus, I figured since it was summer this would be pretty easy to accomplish. Less students equals more available parking. I was wrong. Really wrong. Not only was my secret spots taken, they were actually overcrowded with people double and triple parking, seemingly willing to take the parking fine.
So I drove around for half an hour. Parked in a 20 minute loading zone just so I could unload my books. Drove around some more looking for more permanent parking (since I did have to work), then finally found some shaded parking about a mile from campus...in front of my house...where I dropped my car off, grabbed my bike, and rode back to school. Sometimes I hate ASU.
1 comment:
ASU parking is terrible. I’m glad to see you did the smart thing and just bike to campus; I’ve said so much money not having to contribute to the scam that is ASU parking. We as students need to really make it known that the way parking is setup needs to be changed!
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