ABD-ELHAMEED: Rutgers’ notorious parking system adds stress, financial burden on students
Column: Something to Think About
It is no secret that Rutgers’ parking system has a bad reputation among students, especially among commuters and those who reside in off-campus housing.
While the University outlines the necessary information regarding the different kinds of permits, its permissions and the consequences of violating any of the rules and regulations, it is practically inevitable that every student who owns a parking permit will come in contact with the Rutgers Department of Transportation Services (DOTS) in some way.
For the New Brunswick location, there are six different commuter permits. To park on the College Avenue or Douglass campuses, students are required to pay $200 per semester. If a commuter has a majority of their classes on the College Avenue campus throughout their four years at Rutgers, then they are compelled to pay $1,600 in parking permits just to attend school.
Students who need to park on Busch, Cook or Livingston campuses need to pay $90 for a commuter permit per semester. There is even a Night Commuter Permit, which still requires a $90 fee from students.
Unfortunately, while New Brunswick students who live in on-campus housing are already paying approximately $9,000 to $14,000 for room and board per year, they are still mandated to give another $150 per semester if they choose to have a car. Newark residents simply pay an additional $575 per semester and Camden residents pay $212 per semester.
As if requiring students to pay absurd amounts for attending campus is not enough, the price of permits is only a fraction of why the parking system is deemed notorious in the first place.
When purchasing a parking permit, students will realize that they can only purchase one permit. Do you have classes on three different campuses? Well, then you are forced to take buses to the other two campuses.
On top of that, if two registered vehicles share one permit, students cannot use the permit at the same time. My brother and I both attend the New Brunswick campus, except I have a permit for the College Avenue campus, and he has a permit for Douglass campus because we attend classes on different campuses and cannot use the same permit at the same time.
Naturally, we take different cars to school, but if he parks at the College Avenue Parking Deck due to bus traffic and limited time to get from class to class, then he still has a chance of being ticketed.
I also had difficulty registering a vehicle with multiple accounts. My sister graduated from Rutgers in May of 2022, and I was trying to purchase a parking permit that following summer for the fall semester. Little would I expect that because the previous permits were registered under her Rutgers account, I would face trouble in purchasing permits.
After going back and forth with the DOTS online chat system and my sister, who had already moved out, I was finally able to purchase the parking permit for the College Avenue campus. The minor issue?
Within those few days, the College Avenue parking permit had been sold out.
I then had to purchase a permit for a different campus while all of my classes that semester were on the College Avenue campus, which meant waking up significantly earlier to drive to Livingston campus and hoping every day that I would not have to wait 45 minutes for a non-sardine-packed LX bus or get on a bus that would break down on the way.
If you decide to violate the rules and park on a campus where you do not own a permit, even if there are countless spaces to park, then DOTS will be delighted to ticket you for $20 to $250, depending on the exact violation. So you received a ticket on November 2 and failed to pay the citation by December 2? Then you are charged an extra $10 as a late fee, which is referenced from the 16-page document of Parking Rules and Regulations.
Rutgers accumulates several million dollars from parking tickets each year which, apparently, are used by DOTS to support the "transportation services budget, the bus budget, lot maintenance, plowing and more," according to one article published in October of 2017.
More than five years later, buses are constantly breaking down and the lights are still flickering in the Douglass Parking Deck, among many other issues.
To get a better glimpse of the kinds of issues that other students are facing with the parking system, all you have to do is explore Reddit. On January 25, one Reddit user posed the question about the Rutgers University Police Department (RUPD), asking, "RUPD Got Stricter on Parking?"
A few dozen students had some things to say in that Reddit thread: one person explained how they received a citation for parking on the College Avenue deck even though they had a permit for the College Avenue campus.
Another student describes their encounter with the DOTS system, describing that they have received two citations and three warnings for parking on the College Avenue and Livingston campuses with a permit only for Douglass.
Referring to a parking permit, the user writes, "If I can’t buy another one when will we begin classifying this system as a money making scheme?"
There is no doubt that this parking system that has been set up within the university facilitates a "money-making scheme" while simultaneously neglecting the stress and financial burden that students are already facing. Something needs to change.
Naaima Abd-Elhameed is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in journalism and media studies and minoring in Arabic and international and global studies. Her column, "Something to Think About," runs on alternate Fridays.
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