The Transportation Services Committee met Monday to further discuss decisions regarding the upcoming campus parking reforms.
The committee passed a budget for the plan, which goes into effect next fall. The bulk of the plan makes changes in parking lots, which will affect permit holders, who are mostly staff and faculty. The goal of the changes in parking regulations is to increase the availability of parking, to align campus rates with community parking rates, to encourage walking, biking or riding a bus, and to reduce vehicle transportation. The plan hopes to eliminate confusion caused by current parking restrictions by having three types of permit-enforced lots, instead of the current 23.
The new system will also create revenue for the Madison Metro by increasing permit, citation and parking-meter fees.
The committee has not finished all details of the plan. Problems include a forecasted uproar from emeritus professors, who will no longer have the privilege of free parking, and from researchers, who will no longer be able to use one permit for multiple parking lots.
Interim Campus Parking Director Michael Lovejoy said he expects feedback when the plan is outlined next week in the staff and faculty newspaper Wisconsin Weekly.
“It’s a work in progress, so wish us luck,” he said.