Doug Goldstein

So here at the University of Florida there is an organization called Parking and Transportation Services and the regulate all parking on campus. The parking structure at UF is to give faculty the closest spots near all the buildings, including most dorms (since they’re near classes) and make student parking rare and far from classes. Commuter students have to park even farther away, based on how many classes they’ve completed, they can park within a 5-10 minute bike of classes or nearly off campus if you’re anything shy of a second semester senior. For this privilege you must pay $114 a year. No thanks is what I said. I decided that $30 for 2 years is all I’d pay and that I’d park next to my classes.

Basically I paid attention to when I saw the meter maids around and when someone I knew got a ticket I asked them where they got it and when. Now plus or minus 30 minutes and that lot is “not safe” for an hour. This scheme worked for 2 years for me with the exception of 2 tickets that I got. Both while parked in faculty parking next to my class, the most recent one I even remember. I violated my 1 hour rule and stayed parked there too long but I had to wait for a long time for a professor that I needed to talk to.

Now each ticket costs $20, how’d I reduce it by $5 each? Well you can appeal you tickets on a form or more recently they added the ability to appeal the ticket online and it doesn’t cost you anything. It actually delays the due date on your ticket for 20 business days after you hear back from the appeals panel. Each time I wrote them saying that my professor had asked me to come help bring project materials up to his office and I was only complying. Each time they said I was still in the wrong but reduced my fine by $5.

Now the City of Gainesville is even better. They check even less frequently. They check every area only once a week based on my guess. I’ve only managed to get 1 $25 ticket in the two years I parked in city parking. But there was no appeals process, do not pass go. Go directly to paying a fine within 72 hours otherwise it goes up by like $50.

So in the end, while everyone paid a couple hundred bucks for crappy parking. I got good parking for only $50.

Filed under: General

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