Permit Parking for Staff and Students from September 2015

Dr Strange

According to the latest bulletin email by Andrew Deeks permit parking is to be introduced campus-wide from September. I am curious about the permit times, i.e. starts at 8. What about those students and staff, particularly research and support staff) that come on campus from 7 on?

Anyway, here's the info:

President’s Bulletin #67 &#8211 wrote: »

Introduction of permit car parking
...

Consequently, from September, UCD will introduce a permit car parking system to ensure that our car parking is only used by members of the university community, and also as a means of controlling demand and encouraging use of more sustainable modes of transport.

Eligible staff, students and others working on campus will be able to apply online for a parking permit from August. Visitors and occasional users will be able to use hourly paid car parking located off each main entrance. Permit parking will not be permitted in hourly paid car parks. Permit parking will operate during semester time from 8.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday, on both the Belfield and Blackrock campuses. Unfortunately provision of a permit will not guarantee a parking space, but we hope that the system will make it easier for you to find a space.

Eligible students will initially pay €50 per annum for a parking permit. Despite my efforts to reach agreement with union representatives, the charge for a faculty/staff car parking permit is still in dispute. After hearing the issue, the Labour Relations Commission proposed a charge of €50 per annum for 2 years with a review thereafter, and this proposal was accepted by one of the three representative unions. However, two of the three representative unions voted not to accept the Commission proposal, and so the matter of the charge for faculty and staff is now to be referred to the Labour Court for a decision.

...

pacni

I think it just means that the permit is only necessary during those times. As in, outside of those hours parking is free and unenforced. So if you arrive at 7 you just need to make sure you have a permit from 8 onwards.

I think it's a good thing - there are still a large number of people who are obviously using the car parks as a park and ride facility so it should at least stop them.

Having said that, I do think it a bit unfair to charge, especially only charging students and not staff. After all, students are the ones who are paying money to the university. They also need to clarify at what point a student becomes a staff member because there is a significant crossover (RAs, tutors, postgrad researchers etc.) If they offered free parking for staff and students up until this point then there's no reason why they couldn't continue to do so and just issue all eligible people with the permits for free. Of course there is administration costs associated with that but it hardly warrants €50 per car per annum.

I also think they should have some sort of exception for parking within the residences. With the fees going up to extortionate amounts this year the least they could offer is free parking on residences.

Tayto2000

Looks like a reasonable proposal. Definitely better than the pay as you go anyway. It's not going to make much difference day to day I don't think (The myth that it's outsiders causing all the problems continues) but at least it will be a bit fairer. Pacni's right I think, free parking outside peak times (So evening visitors don't get penalised).

Charging staff is the reason this has been delayed so far, some of the unions are claiming that free staff parking is a right they are entitled to since it has always been free and are refusing to pay anything at all on principle, so back to the labour court.

The residences have thrown up a new phenomenon in the past few years whereby people living on res drive up at the weekend and essentially garage their cars on campus for the week. There's not enough res spaces so the carparks are used (Especially at Roebuck). This will still work under the proposed permit system as well. €50 a year for essentially unlimited parking seems pretty good and arriving at 11pm on Sunday means you'll get a space. It seems to me that the residences will either have to operate under the campus wide system or have their own parking rules anyway.

Nice to see some leadership from this from the new president, Brady basically ignored the whole issue once it got difficult and bogged down, despite it being very important to everyone on campus. I think Clark Kerr (University of California) got it right - “I have sometimes thought of the modern university as a series of individual faculty entrepreneurs
held together by a common grievance over parking.”