Students are struggling to find parking across campus, resulting in tickets for parking in undesignated areas and late arrivals to class.
Commuter students can buy permits for $656 per year in Red, Pink, Yellow, Gray and Teal Zones. Residents can only park in Teal and Gray lots and pay $706 a year.
Red parking is concentrated by the School of Nursing and Health Science and School of Communication, yellow near the Watsco Center, purple near University Village and Frost School of Music, pink near Lakeside Village and teal near the Mahoney-Pearson construction site, according to the campus parking map.
But buying a permit does not guarantee a parking spot.
The Miami Hurricane posted a non-scientific survey on Sept. 14 asking students how long it takes to find a parking spot, especially around mid-day. The survey remained live for 24 hours and received 26 replies.
One student, Sophie Libermann, wrote that at peak mid-week hours, “Finding a parking spot can take literally 20-plus minutes.” Libermann said she parks in Red Lot Monday through Friday, and experienced the most difficulty between noon and 2 p.m.
Students have resorted to creating spaces along the curb when every single parking spot in a zone is taken. If caught, students are penalized with a $40 parking citation, and repeat offenders could potentially get a boot.
“I’ve received two citations saying where I parked was not a designated parking spot,” said another student who wishes to remain unnamed. “It’s really frustrating when the lot I paid to park in is full, and the University doesn’t seem to care about this issue commuter students face.”
The student received an email from the Department of Parking and Transportation saying, “Moving forward, please know that we do allow students to park in the teal zone as an overflow area. Additionally, if you are unable to find parking in your designated lot, please feel free to call the parking and transportation office at that point in time, and we can direct you where to park.”
The University, however, said parking remains available across its permit zones.
“The Department of Parking and Transportation continuously monitors the number of vehicles in all parking locations. All parking permit zones do show some availability throughout the day,” the University said in a statement to The Hurricane.
The University did not respond to The Hurricane’s questions regarding how many parking spaces are on campus or how many permits were issued.
The University also noted that the Mahoney-Pearson Parking Garage is available to all “permitted vehicles” as overflow parking — regardless of permit type — for the Fall semester.
“One location that has an abundance of unused parking spots is the Mahoney-Pearson Parking Garage,” the University’s statement read. “For the Fall semester, all permitted vehicles, regardless of permit type, will be allowed to park in the Mahoney-Pearson Parking Garage.”
The Miami Hurricane posted a non-scientific poll on Instagram on Tuesday, Sept. 15, asking whether students knew about any of these options. The poll remained live for 24 hours and received 140 responses.
94% said they did not know they could park in the Teal Lot as overflow or call the Department of Transportation. 4% said they knew both, and the remaining 2% knew one fact or the other.
With Student Government Senate voting starting this week, commuter senator candidate Nicolas J. Perez said his top priority would be providing a visual aid of currently available spots in all campus lots.
“What I want to do is put digital signs at every UM lot on campus that display how many spaces are available,” said Perez. “I went to FIU my freshman year, and they had that, which I found very helpful. If FIU can afford that, Miami certainly can.”
The University did create a real-time parking availability tool within the UMiami App.
For now, students are left with long searches for parking or risk tickets when they resort to spots they don’t have the right to park in.
In its statement, the University encouraged UM community members to “plan ahead, allow extra time during peak periods, follow parking regulations and be considerate of others who share campus parking resources.”