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Garages, alternative transportation presented as parking fixes

Following this semester’s record enrollment increase, UH’s Parking and Transportation Services presented its parking plan for the 2012-2013 school year on Friday, with the supply and demand of parking spaces being the main focus.

The campus is currently at a parking deficit of 407 spaces, which is an underestimation, Director of Parking and Transportation Services Bob Browand said. He also stated that there are poorly maintained parking facilities and that the campus is losing parking inventory as quickly as it is gained.

Due to the construction of the new Metro Light Rail, and other parking-related construction, there will be an elimination of 1597 parking spaces during the 2011 fiscal year, with 800 of them being permanent. It is projected that there will be a total loss of 1929 in the coming years.

“I think they are building too much at once (and) that a big amount of spaces are going to be unavailable,” communications junior Deisy Enriquez said. “I also think that if they’re going to eliminate spaces, they should build temporary spaces in advance and not have students looking around for spaces.”

To compensate for the loss of spaces, officials have proposed other locations, such as the MacGregor property near Bayou Oaks, which is owned by the University and will provide 500 parking spaces. Intramural field 2, located near the recreation building, may also be used temporarily.

Four new parking garages are planned for UH and two, the stadium and Lot 18A garages, are expected to be finished by 2012.

Recent services added by PTS to benefit students include online parking services and an improved website, the Nextbus shuttle information service, the Connected by Hertz car rental program, Metro Q Card on-campus issuance and loading, garage reconfiguration, east parking garage, parking availability, and the Energy Research Park parking lot.

Officials hope to expand The Alternative Transportation Plan and increase student usage of the various elements of the plan by 5 percent.

The plan includes alternative modes of transportation, such as biking, carpooling, taking the bus, and walking, to alleviate the on-campus parking.

This will decrease the vehicles coming to campus, Browand said.

Funding sources for the overall parking plan will include parking citations and parking permit sales. There are plans to increase the rates of the parking permits and to increase the sales of those permits.

Another issue PTS is tackling is visitation to the campus, which is expected to rise 28 percent in the next decade, Browand said.

PTS intends to better assist visitor parking issues by installing new LUKE parking meters, developing event parking regulations and policies, and the improving parking garages.  The LUKE parking meters, which the City of Houston recently installed for parking along Holman Street, will be installed on various surface lots around campus.

The department hopes the plan will help the campus community see it in a better light. With customer satisfactory levels down by 9 percent since last year, the department seeks to build their image through methods such as town hall meetings and better customer service.

8 Comments

  • "There are plans to increase the rates of the parking permits and to increase the sales of those permits." A wise man told me, "You crazyyyyyy"!

    • When public transportation is as slow, disorganized, and racked with power struggles as it is in Houston, you can be sure people won't use it.

      • agreed…public transportation and the huge suface area of the city is the problem in Houston, not the Houstonians.

  • In the short term they should definitely increase the cost of parking…I hate to say it but relately speaking the parking here is extremely cheap and charging more is better and more upfront than simply drastically overselling the existing spaces. Iin the longer term they should look into building a parking garage at one of the future light rail stops so that students can park at the garage and then take the light rail in (and they can make it proportionately cheaper than an on-campus garage to make up for the added distance). Campus space should be for buildings not parking garages.

  • . There are plans to increase the rates of the parking permits and to increase the sales of those permits.

    this is really what the whole thing is about….it pisses me off to know we pay good money already and they cant even provide a parking space…and to increase prices is a slap on the face…I wish I could slap every time someone suggests: increase the price!

  • So the plan actually includes walking….really!!?? Are we forgetting where the university is located? Who is going to walk through the ghetto to get to school, with crazy sweat from the region's heat and humidity? The article title had "parking fixes" on it so I got excited. This plan is a list of parking problems being created, not fixed. It truely sounds like the plan to fix the parking in '12 and '13 is to get rid of a whole lot of parking spots and just expect students to do something else. I would love to hear the statistics on how much travel time these other options would take compared to driving to the parking lot and walking to class. I, like many, work full-time so every minute counts. Even the long term fix of four garages may not be enough by the time they open.

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