As many University of Wisconsin students know well, finding parking in Madison is an aggravating and costly endeavor.
Every day, approximately 800-900 parking tickets are issued across the UW campus and Capital Square, according to Sergeant Brown, the City of Madison parking-enforcement supervisor.
These tickets range in cost from $10 meter-parking violations to $100 handicap citations. While Brown estimated most students are in compliance with parking regulations, the most common student infraction is parking on private property, which carries with it a hefty $40 fine.
“The student parking tickets written the most are probably private-property parking complaints, such as blocked driveways,” Brown said.
Brown hypothesized that students get fewer parking tickets than commuters or visitors, because they are typically familiar with parking regulations and have purchased permits or leases.
Such permits and leases, however, are no less costly and aggravating for many students. Tom Klawitter of Madison Parking Utility advocated Residential Parking Permits for students residing in residential neighborhoods.
These permits allow for students to park in two-hour parking zones for up to 48 hours.
While these permits are comparatively a deal at only $24 for the entire year, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 8, jokingly referred to them as “hunting permits” due to the long periods of time one must circle the streets in order to find a spot, as well as to the annoyance of having to move one’s car every two days to avoid being ticketed.
The alternative parking option to which many students succumb is the leasing of backyard parking lots offered behind many homes.
There has been a huge controversy in recent years over a related city zoning ordinance the City Council issued in the ’60s, Verveer said.
The ordinance states landowners can only lease parking spaces to individuals who live within 1,000 feet of the premise.
The ordinance was written to combat rising parking prices that were a result of business commuters realizing it would be cheaper to rent backyard parking spots than to purchase costly passes from parking structures. At the same time, landlords discovered they could charge more for parking, because even if students could not afford high monthly charges, there were commuters ready and willing to pay inflated prices.
Due to the political clout of landlords and office workers, a moratorium on enforcing the ordinance was in place from the ’70s until the late ’90s, when the City Council finally voted to “kick commuters out of backyards.”
However, the problem that remains is that there are not enough building/zoning inspectors to take on the laborious process of enforcement. For this reason, in many neighborhoods, prices remain high, and commuters remain parked.
In 2000, the City Council concentrated on a few blocks surrounding Bassett Street. Within these few blocks, the zoning inspectors successfully kicked out the commuters, and parking prices in this area have already fallen as low as $45 per month compared to the stiff prices of up to $125 per month that still exist in the uninspected Langdon area.
While new inspectors continue to be hired, including one new position that was added in the 2003 budget, inspectors still are unable to provide adequate enforcement.
The City Council intends to make additional improvements by building additional parking ramps, one on the 300 block of West Washington Avenue, and the other partway up State Street.
Until then, Verveer’s main word of advice to students: “Try not to have a car.”