Park and ride lot not free next year

In less than a year, access to the nine UNC park-and-ride lots will no longer be free for commuters, who will be required to pay a minimum $227 fee.

The new charge for the lots will be implemented in the 2013-14 year as part of the Department of Public Safety’s five-year transportation plan.

The park-and-ride fee for users of the Commuter Alternative Program will be charged on a sliding scale based on income. Those with an income less than $25,000 — which includes most UNC students — will be charged $227.

On top of the parking pass fee, a $23.50 increase to the student transit fee has already been cleared by the student fee advisory subcommittee.

Michael Bertucci, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation, sent an email earlier this week informing students of the change and advising students to seek housing on Chapel Hill Transit and Triangle Transit bus lines.

Bertucci said it is important that students who plan to commute learn about this change before entering their first year at UNC or seeking off-campus housing, so they don’t get locked into paying the extra park-and-ride charge.

“Students coming into the school need to understand that in order for them to go to school, they will have to pay money for a park-and-ride pass in addition to the (transit) fee.”

He also said one difficulty posed by the five-year plan is that students might be seeing the effects of decisions made two years ago.

“It’s been made pretty clear that it’s going to happen, and we don’t think there’s any way for us to change that at this point, so we just want to alert all graduate and undergraduate students,” he said.

The five-year plan, to be completed by 2015-16, was enacted to address a lack of money and projected budget shortfalls for DPS, said Randy Young, department spokesman.

The department intends to reduce revenue gathered from on-campus parking permits from $1.5 million to $1 million in the next five years.

The $23.50 fee increase contributes to the plan’s goal of raising the yearly transit fee to as much as $169 by the 2015-16 school year.

Students, who account for about 80 percent of total ridership of the Chapel Hill transportation system, will pay 41.5 percent of transit costs by 2015-16, as opposed to 29.5 percent in 2010-11.

Aaron Hale-Dorrell, a history graduate student, said students are feeling the pinch.

“It’s getting harder and harder, and flat out because of economic concerns,” he said.

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