As the Big Ten school with the lowest number of parking places per capita, UW-Madison finalized a new parking plan for the 2002-'03 school year Friday which increases parking permit fees and decreases parking perks for emeritus professors.
The plan will offer alternate forms of transportation for employees including park and ride and free bus passes like those available to students. It will increase the number of parking stalls by restricting the free parking available to emeritus professors, and it will raise the prices of parking to help finance new parking ramps beneath specified academic buildings.
According to a statement made by Transportation Services Director Lance Lunsway, the plan will offer more alternate forms of transportation to employees to decrease the demand on such a low supply of spaces.
\The campus demand for parking is so high, and space is so limited,""Lunsway said. ""We must find ways to make optimal use of the space we do have.""
Because UW-Madison Transportation Services is auxiliary, it has to be self-sufficient. Former interim director of transportation Michael Lovejoy said that the increased prices will be used to build new parking ramps within the next few years.
""The transportation fund at the university requires that it is self-sufficient,"" he said. ""The planned improvements of ramp construction is programmed over the next several years to build ramps under proposed academic buildings.""
The increased prices were set to more closely resemble parking in the rest of Madison, which is approximately $400 to $600 more than UW-Madison employees pay annually.
""We knew we wouldn't be out of whack with the cost of parking in the city of Madison,"" Lovejoy said. ""People working in Madison, even legislative officials, are paying the same, if not more than the proposed increase.""
Current parking regulations state that emeritus professors get free parking ""if parking is available."" Lovejoy said, however, that they have been getting first pick at parking permits. Because this significantly lowers the number of stalls available to full-time employees, the new rules will be implemented more strictly with next year's plan.
""The only group [losing benefits in the new plan] was the emeritus faculty."" Lovejoy said. ""Historically they have had free parking off the top but we have 300 to 400 people without parking on the waiting list.""
The original plan proposed by the department of transportation made the cheapest parking cost $400. The only change that Chancellor John Wiley made to this proposal was to lower the price of the cheapest stalls by $50 to suit lower-paid employees.
""To help alleviate the burden on those earning lower wages, I am directing the departments to prioritize parking so that those employees are given an opportunity to choose cheaper lots,"" Wiley said.
