Parking Operation Updates
At the start of 2021, we introduced new features to Parking Operations, which included ParkMobile, Daily Rates, and License Plate Recognition Technology. Our work continues to address the mobility needs on campus. See our Parking Operations Updates Menu for links on what has changed.
Adapting to the times (We've never seen anything like this!)
This has been an unpredictable year, particularly for those in the Aggie Community who have needed to physically be on campus for work and class. Like most of us, we didn’t anticipate a sheltering-in-place order and a reduction in operations (that still continues today). Simply put, as an auxiliary unit on campus, Transportation Services receives no money from the State, University, or student tuition. Our department is responsible for creating our own revenue, which we earn through parking fees. We see no profit and put earned revenue back into the campus, by maintaining roads, pathways, and parking areas.
In a pandemic, how do we pivot an operation of our size and adapt to the short and long-term demand for parking?
To put this into perspective, this time last year, in Fall of 2019, campus parking was around 95% capacity. That is, of all the parking stalls on campus, 95% were regularly in use on campus workdays. Today, those same parking spaces are at 20% capacity. That’s not only a drop in the number of vehicles coming to and parking on campus, it is a major reduction in the operating budget for Transportation Services.
As current operations stand, Transportation Services was not built to fully withstand a pandemic of this duration. So, we're adapting. In these past months, we have made adjustments where and when we can, and are looking at how we can do business in a sustainable way that best serves UC Davis.