Recently, both The Washington Post and The Eagle ran articles about the price of university parking in the area. Unfortunately those articles have painted some unclear and possibly unfair pictures of AU’s parking policies and prices. We would like to take a moment to try and present a clearer picture for our community. While we understand that no one ever gets their pay check and says, “Now I can pay for that parking permit I always wanted,” AU does its best to ensure that our parking rates and policies are fair and comparable to both local universities and the District of Columbia.
To make certain that AU’s parking rates remain competitive, every two years we conduct a cost analysis of AU’s parking rates as compared to the immediate surrounding universities and private parking facilities, as well as local residential facilities. According to AU’s most recent analysis conducted in December 2008, AU’s parking costs are significantly lower than our closest competitors (i.e. Georgetown, George Washington) and well below the cost of local commercial and residential parking facilities.
The truth is that when compared to Georgetown’s and GW’s parking, AU has the closest, most convenient facilities with the highest space availability, not to mention some of the least expensive parking costs in D.C. To quote an AU student who stopped into our office looking for some information for her school paper on AU parking: “It only took me 10 minutes on the Internet to realize that AU’s parking is some of the cheapest in the area.” In fact, if one looks at university Web sites, you will see that AU resident and commuter students pay $468 per semester and $936 per academic year, while GW resident students pay $850 per semester and $1700 per academic year. At Georgetown, resident students are not allowed to park on campus at all. Georgetown commuter students must first enter a lottery to be eligible to park and then pay $657 per semester and $1314 for the academic year. That puts AU up to $382 cheaper per semester or $764 cheaper per academic year. In addition, AU faculty and staff permits are $117 per month while Georgetown faculty and staff pay up to $143 per month and GW faculty and staff pay $120 per month. Once again, American is cheaper.
This is not to say that parking is cheap. Parking in the D.C. metro area isn’t cheap by any standards. However parking cost at AU are below market value, while still providing quality, convenience and availability. Our goal is to offer our community a productive learning environment where they can walk, drive and park in safety with minimum disruption to the community. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Public Safety. Be safe.
Sincerely, The Parking and Records Management Team
