Change is good, especially when it comes to parking at Salt Lake Community College.
Since this past August, SLCC Parking Services has been operating on a new digital system, which allows students to handle all their parking needs – such as purchasing a permit and paying or appealing a ticket – online.
“It’s going great,” says parking supervisor Rick Medley. “There’s a few outliers who’ve had issues that we’ve tried to help them work through, but for the most part, I think everybody’s pretty happy and it’s going well.”
The system was designed so students no longer need to display physical decals or hangtags. Now, when students sign up for a parking permit, the permit is linked directly to their license plate.
Parking enforcement now only must scan license plates of cars parked in SLCC parking lots to determine whether they have a parking permit.
Although Medley says that the numbers haven’t been ran, he estimates that the number of citations is consistent with the number prior to the system being updated.
“We’ve voided more tickets than we normally would to help folks get acclimated to the system,” Medley adds. “We’ve been very forgiving of those situations.”
While streamlining the parking enforcement process, Medley says this system has also hit a couple of minor hiccups as students adapt to the new changes.
“[One] issue is students that don’t have a front plate on their vehicle. They need to have their back plate facing the roadway or driving lane, because it’s a reader that’s scanning license plates, and if they don’t have a license plate or it’s not where it would normally go, they’re going to be cited for not having a permit basically because the license plate is the permit. We’re not citing because they don’t have a front plate, we’re citing because the plate isn’t visible.
“The second thing is just to make sure that if they have two vehicles on their permit, they need to make sure that both vehicles are linked to the permit, not just their record. The record will indicate that they have two vehicles, but if they don’t link them to the permit, then they’ll be cited for not having a permit.”
Despite the minor growing pains associated with the change, Parking Services is confident that, with a little time and better understanding, the process will be easier for all involved.
“You know, it’s just a learning curve for our faculty, staff and students, and eventually, this time next year, I think everybody outside of those that haven’t come to the college will have a really good understanding of how the system works and hopefully it’ll be smoother for them,” says Medley.
For more information about permits and parking in general, students can contact Parking Services at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus or call 801-957-4011.
