Every day, students race out of their houses so they can find a parking spot on campus. Breakfast might be skipped. Some students arrive tardy to their classes, missing notes or even a quiz. All because 30 minutes were wasted in the parking lot.
Joanna Sanchez, a biology freshman, said her experience with parking requires arriving ahead of time.
“You have to come really early in order to get parking,” Sanchez said. “It’s usually packed.”
Desery Pacheco, a theatre performance senior, agrees there are many issues with parking.
“What probably needs to be done is, I guess everyone would say this, … just add more parking,” Pacheco said.
UTRGV Parking and Transportation Services is addressing this problem by installing new parking counters in Lot E-32 on the Edinburg campus and Lot B-1 on the Brownsville campus.
Parking Services Director Pablo Aguilar said the university bought the counters from Parking Logix, which expects to complete the installation by the end of the semester.
The two lots were chosen because E-32 is adjacent to Lot E-9 and close to the baseball stadium, and B-1 is the largest parking lot on the Brownsville campus.
The counters are part of a parking guide system (PGS) that features a sign at the lot’s entrance to display the number of available parking spots.
“It helps determine if [the students] want to stop and try to find [a] parking space, or if they should just try the next parking lot,” Aguilar said.
In Fall 2018, the department installed the solar-powered parking counters for a 45-day trial. For the trial, lot E-9, near the School of Medicine, was chosen because of the heavy traffic in that area due to the intersections and it is one of the biggest parking lots on campus, Aguilar said.
Aguilar said staff and faculty have expressed their satisfaction with the parking counters.
Installing the parking counters and purchasing the necessary hardware, including the software access, totaled $20,000, a one-time expense. Citations and other revenue from Parking Services contributed to purchasing the counters.
“We find a way to reinvest [parking revenue] within the department and one of those ways that it gets reinvested is in parking technology,” he said.
While the upcoming lots are being installed, Jaime Tirado, a political science senior, said he advises students to adapt. He usually arrives ahead of time, ensuring he finds parking before his classes begin.
