There are now parking zones for residence halls students in addition to the already enforced parking zones on campus. Students who live in residential halls will now be given gold parking decals and a map that specifies the parking areas adjacent to their dorms that they may park in.
In addition to the gold decals residential halls students receive, faculty and staff receive blue decals and commuter students receive red decals. According to Tommy Ponson, the assistant director for residential services, the parking zones have always been color-coded but they will be broken down further this year.
“By enforcing the new parking zones it will eliminate residence hall students from getting in their cars and driving everywhere they go on campus. In enforcing the new parking zones this will leave more spaces open for commuter students,” Ponson said.
Ponson said the faculty and staff parking spots are clearly marked with red signs and resident hall spots will be marked with grey signs as soon as they come in.
According to Ponson, this new zone parking is the beginning of a new phase. Resident hall students receive a map that highlights which areas they may park in. The parking zone restriction for resident hall students will end at 6 p.m. Commuter students can look in the handbook for any type of parking information they may be concerned about.
Ponson also said there will be an increase on handicap parking violations that will be in effect. A violation for handicap parking will now be a $250 penalty. Traffic violations will be strictly enforced. Violations such as speeding, running a stop sign and failure to yield for pedestrians will be a $50 fee.
“Hopefully we will make students conscience that they do not need to drive everywhere they need to go, will eliminate students from parking in faculty and staff spots and leave parking spaces available for commuter students, “Ponson said.
The University Parking/ Traffic Regulations hand-out book that comes with the purchase of parking decals provides students with basic information on visitor parking, short-term parking, special parking privileges, parking violations and penalty fees.
The hand-out book also contains a campus parking facility map that has the different parking zones color-coded. The faculty and staff parking is the red curbs or any place with a headstone, the student visitor parking is numbered, curbs painted yellow are areas where no parking is permitted and designated parking are curbs painted white.
“Because I live in the residential halls I walk to all my classes, and I have no problem with the new parking zones for students who live in the residential halls,” Patrick Gensler, freshman from Baton Rouge, said.