University students and faculty members may soon be able to use a single parking permit and transfer it between multiple cars.
The Department of Public Safety is looking into replacing permanent adhesive parking stickers with a static-cling or removable adhesive permit that would be placed in the bottom left corner of the rear window.
According to DPS Parking and Transportation Manager Rand Stamm, new technology and permit designs have enabled the department to examine options outside of the current permanent parking sticker.
“This is a good time to maybe change things over,” Stamm said.
However, he said that removable permits would force DPS to restructure their permit pricing.
“If we were to change from (permanent parking stickers), probably the price for the individual permit would have to go up because you would no longer have first and second vehicles, you would have a single permit that you would trade between vehicles,” Stamm said. “Permits are vehicle-specific, so it basically prevents them from being changed around.”
If DPS decides to update the permit system, the changes could take place as early as fall term. Stamm said DPS orders permits to be purchased each August in time for the law school to begin.
The department is talking to different permit vendors and organizations that use other types of permits to get feedback on the different kinds.
“Whatever we use will have to go on the rear of the vehicle,” Stamm said. “Our officers… have to be able to go by the cars parked in the lots and be able to check them. We can’t afford the staffing it would take to have people walking between the cars checking for permits.”
Currently, parking permits must be placed on the left of the bumper with the permit’s adhesive, not tape. According to the DPS Web site, failure to obtain or correctly display a valid parking permit carries a $20 fine.
Stamm said the reason permits are placed on the bumper is vehicles on campus are required to park head-first. He added that parking patrol officers also have an easier time glancing at bumpers for stickers than other places on a vehicle.
Also, Stamm said that Oregon motor vehicle code has a technicality that states a driver is not supposed to put anything in the windows.
“If it were permanently affixed to the exterior of the window with its own adhesive, as a general rule, the officers will accept that,” he said. “Technically it has to be on the bumper.”
But Stamm said if patrol officers cannot see the sticker in the window of a vehicle they will give out a ticket. Specifically, Stamm said trucks and cars with tinted windows usually have this problem.
Some students are not happy with using permanent adhesive stickers on either their windows or their bumpers.
Senior Sherry Telford has not purchased a parking permit at the University because she has heard how difficult they are to remove, and she thinks the permits cost too much.
“I think they’re too expensive and it would be difficult to find parking on campus even with a permit,” Telford said. “I also worry that I would not be able to get the permit off my car without ruining the surface.”
Stamm said that the permits are removable with patience and the right tools. He personally uses boiling water to remove his permits.
Others have told him that vinegar or WD-40 help to remove the sticker.
He added that the permits are designed to come off in pieces to prevent theft or permit sharing.
Telford said that she might consider purchasing a permit if they were static-cling or had a removable adhesive, but only if the price didn’t go up.