Where does one even begin to talk about campus parking? I mean universities have to make a ridiculous amount of money each year off of parking tickets. The universities think they are so clever with their convenient 45 minute meter parking when they know damn well all classes are 50 minutes long. Also with the number of students rising each year are the number of parking spots increasing too? NO, they are not. The university gets more money from the increasing number of students and more money from the increasing number of parking tickets…looks like a win-win for them and a lose-lose for the students.

So what can you do?

Personally, even though it is their job, I like to take my frustration out on the ticketing staff! They are all terrible people and guess what…they almost all do not own a car! So here you have a bunch of evil people pissed off that they don’t have a set of wheels so they take it out on us! I swear they get satisfaction in ticketing cars and I honestly think the universities recruit people who do not have cars so they will be extra bitter and more likely to ticket those who parked in the wrong spot. I personally want someone to follow the ticket staff around and rip up every ticket right after they put it on the car. Or walk around the meter parking and put change in right before they ticket a car for being parked too long. As you can tell I have a strong dislike for the parking ticket staff.

I have learned in my days that once you receive a ticket you can use it to your advantage. Park where ever you want next time and put the old ticket on your car as if they have already ticketed you for the illegal park job. Beware though this will only fool them for awhile. I thought I was getting away with it for almost 5 months then i noticed my ticket envelop was getting thicker, needless to say they started putting more tickets in the envelop.

Also backing into parking spots reduces your chances of receiving a ticket. The ticket fairies are lazy and do not like to walk out of their way to look at a parking decal, so they may just skip right around your car.

You can also acquire a good temporary pass collection. Grab some of your friends temporary passes and scan them into your computer to change the info and then print them out. Keep them all in your car and use the passes accordingly!

Please share your ideas if you have any other ideas on how to avoid those damn campus parking tickets!

-Jared, CP Staff