This university’s parking policy is preposterous. The rules are ridiculous and vague. It’s especially unfortunate, considering the consequences for breaking the rules are serious and appealing these consequences is challenging. Something must be done — and the first step is for everyone to understand the lunacy of the status quo.
As Public Safety Chief Michael McNair recently told The Eagle, all individuals affiliated with AU, including students, faculty and staff are prohibited from leaving cars on residential streets when coming to campus. Anyone who violates this rule risks getting a $75 ticket. The thinking behind this rule is that students should not be taking the parking spots of local residents, because many of them do not have garages or driveways.
Certainly, students should be required to respect local residents when it comes to parking. But there are several problems with the current policy. First of all, nowhere has the university specified the streets where students cannot park. Is parking off-limits a mile away from AU? Two miles? Are there certain streets that are exceptions to the rule? While The Eagle was told that this includes “walking distance” from AU, who determines what that means? Students need to know. Maybe there should be a map.
The second major issue with this policy involves the $338 Zone 3 parking permits, which can be purchased at the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles. These are meant for students who actually live in the area and they give these students the legal right to park near their homes. The problem is that Public Safety officers have been ticketing vehicles that belong to these students.
There is an appeal process for those who feel they have been unfairly ticketed, but it’s dubious at best. Public Safety has written 923 tickets to AU community members since the beginning of the calendar year. About 800 of those have been appealed, but only about 100 appeals were granted, according to McNair.
Oh, and how are ticket-worth vehicles being identified, you wonder? That’s the worst part. Public Safety targets students who leave their cars parked around AU while going to class, because policy dictates that students have to park on campus or take public transportation. This policy is questionable to begin with, but what’s really egregious is how it is enforced. According to McNair, officers literally go around looking for cars with AU stickers on them or textbooks inside them. They just go hunting. There is no policy in place to determine which vehicles are parked in front of students’ homes. But, in a twisted bit of irony, there is a part of this “Good Neighbor Policy” that creates an incentive for neighbors to phone Public Safety and rat out students parked on the street.
Parking policies at this university needs to be clarified immediately so that students can follow the rules. But in the long term, these policies probably should be changed. Perhaps AU should work with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission to create sensible solutions to these problems. Other options should be brought to the table. But the issues here are obvious. Our current policies are unclear, unfair and unacceptable.
