Parking at the University can be a real challenge. On a good day, finding a parking spot somewhere near your destination can be something of a challenge. On a bad day, looking for a space is a fool’s errand.
As if drivers to the campus area — faculty, staff and students alike — didn’t face enough vehicular challenges already, the Department of Public Safety’s current parking permit program is a sticky mess. Literally.
You see them on the backs of cars all around campus: Fading orange stickers, crackling cyan stickers, and half-removed green stickers with streaks of dried white adhesive.
Sometimes they’re pasted on top of each other five or six layers thick. Sometimes they cover an entire rear bumper, an intricate tapestry of parking permission slips reminding passersby of this sticky situation.
The University’s ugly permits are designed to come off in pieces to prevent theft and sharing, DPS Parking and Transportation Manager Rand Stamm said. The trick, though, lies in removing the too-durable stickers at all. Stamm says he uses boiling water to remove his permits; other home-brew solutions he’s heard of include vinegar and WD-40. But all of that is simply too much work for something that’s intended to facilitate a convenience like parking on campus.
The problem at the heart of this gooey mess is that the permanent sticker parking permits are just that — permanent. Besides the issue of removal (and thus that of aesthetics), permanent stickers present a logistical problem. If your car (with parking permit attached) is in the shop, you need to visit DPS for a temporary permit — not a major inconvenience, but not a necessary one, either.
Similar issues apply to people who drive more than one car to campus, or to people who buy cars mid-term.
Fortunately, Stamm and DPS are looking into replacing the unsightly stickers with removable adhesive or static-cling permits. The Emerald Editorial Board praises DPS for exploring this issue, and strongly encourages the department to replace the stickers with more user-friendly permits. (Rear-view mirror permits, though probably more convenient for most drivers, aren’t a viable option, as EPD needs stickers to be on cars’ backs.)
Removable permits solve all of worst problems associated with the current system: Is your car in the shop? Peel it off and put it on your rental or a friend’s car you’re borrowing. Do you regularly switch cars with a spouse? Peel it off and put it on. Buying a new car? Peel it.
Unfortunately, this change would likely bring with it a price increase, Stamm explained. If the University changed to transferable permits, the demand for additional permits would decrease, increasing the price per permit to maintain revenues. But that’s a small price to pay for this much convenience.