The University of South Carolina’s Parking and Transportation Services announced an increase in the price of parking permits on June 20 for the first time since the 2016-17 academic year.
The increased payment impacts all students, faculty and staff purchasing commuter, resident, grad student, garage spot, Greek Village and park and ride permits. Garages and Greek Village permits saw the largest difference in price, each growing $80 annually.
The department plans to invest the new income into a combination of short- and long-term initiatives pertaining to student safety, renovations and improved student experience.
Parking and Transportation Services director Brian Favela said much of the increase can be accredited to “aligning with the market.”
“Inflation has obviously taken a toll on some of our services that we outsource. For example, COMET, what we pay COMET, increases year over year,” Favela said. “We needed to somehow compensate for that, and this is what made sense, and we wanted to be fair about increase too.”
Favela said Parking and Transportation Services is a self-sustaining department, meaning it receives no funding from USC or the state.
“I think the highest fee increase is 10% for each year, especially for students, and so it's really just the adding costs in inflation and we just couldn't continually absorb it anymore,” Favela said.
Student Body President Patton Byars said he’s trying to help create transparency between the university and the parking department.
“I think the biggest thing for me, as a student, is that there's a long-term investment plan in place,” Byars said. “I don't want anything to be raised ever, but when it does happen, it does have to happen. I believe you need to have a 21st-century living and learning environment for all students.”
Byars said some long-term investments that are coming from this raise include the new ParkUSC app and parking garage renovations.
“We are investing very heavily in technology that will improve the student experience,” Favela said. “Talking about the ParkUSC app, we were asked to deliver a different experience for move-in, so they actually were integrating a move-in application as a feature, as part of the ParkUSC app. We're just really looking at working towards becoming a much smarter campus.”
ParkUSC shows available spots in the parking lots at Greek Village and the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. The app was crowdsourced in these locations and will grow to other spots on campus in the fall.
Favela said the Blossom Street Garage is getting a new staircase. That alone costs $1 million, in addition to other staircases being upgraded throughout campus, he said.
The department is also working on a parking guidance system that Favela said is comparable to the Columbia Airport’s system. It is fully funded by University President Michael Amiridis and will be implemented in the Bull Street Garage to show available parking instantaneously.
Outside of technological improvements, Byars and Favela have collaborated to bring a nighttime shuttle service to students on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays to get them safely from campus to nightlife spots in Columbia.
It won’t launch until the spring, but Byars said he believes an after-hours shuttle will improve the safety of USC students. Subject to change, stops will be outside of Greek Village, the Pastides Alumni Center and the Horseshoe on campus.
"The after-hours shuttle that we're working on, that is a massive deal, plain and simple," Byars said. "I think that's the biggest one when you're talking about student experience — we're gonna get an after-hours shuttle that will take students to and from nightlife areas to make sure that you're safe all the time. And that is a big, big deal when it comes to safety and transportation on our campus."
Students just need a CarolinaCard to enter and can bring one guest each, and the shuttle will bring passengers to either the Vista or Five Points. Byars said the shuttle's tentative running hours are 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Speaker of the Student Senate Maura Hamilton echoed Byars' hopes for improved student experience in relation to Parking and Transportation Services.
“I believe, like President Byars, that through Parking and Transportation’s work, students will have a better user experience as long and short-term investments come to fruition, like the after-hour shuttle,” Hamilton said.
Other efforts being made to improve student experience are extended game day shuttles to Williams-Brice Stadium and Uber discounts for all home football games. Favela said the funding for the discounts pooled by Student Government, the police department and student affairs was matched 100% by Parking and Transportation Services.
Looking forward, Favela said that planning is crucial to the improvement of campus five years down the line. He’s hoping to hire transportation, parking and engineering consultants to advise the department on underutilized parking areas and shuttle improvements.
“All these little areas really are the reason where some of the money is going into, but whether this fee was increased or not, or approved, we were looking to do this," Favela said. "This just accelerated it to get it done."