Who doesn’t love waking up to an email from the transportation department telling them their car has been towed and they have been fined?
When a student’s car is towed on campus, it can costs upward of $100 to get it back from the transportation office. Cars are often left with a ticket as well that is usually around $30.
When we get our parking passes, they are specifically registered to each student. With this technology, it would make sense to send out a text or email with a warning that a car is about to be towed. For example, if the University is about to tow a car, they could instead send out a quick text telling the student they have a certain amount of minutes to move it out of the restricted area.
For many lots on campus, the forbidden hours are 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. These include faculty lots and other restricted parking areas. Many times, I hear stories about people getting towed five minutes into the forbidden hours. I understand it’s still a rule no matter how many minutes you’re parked in a restricted lot, but everyone has those days. Things happen and bad days are the worst, and getting towed can be the breaking point.
As if the University doesn’t empty our pockets enough, they are more than willing to charge a large amount of money to get a car back. It doesn’t really make any sense as to what the money is covering considering they have their own tow trucks. They don’t hire a third party towing service to do the work. The cars aren’t even towed to a location off of the University’s campus. The car is brought directly to the transportation services behind a metal gate, where it patiently sits awaiting its rescue.
If a student doesn’t have the money to get their car back on the first day it is towed, they’re charged more money for each additional day it sits in the University’s towing lot. This can add up quickly, making it so much harder to get a vehicle back. The University is purposely increasing the difficulty, which can make it impossible for the student to get to and from class and work.
If the University spent more time and money toward building adequate parking lots or garages, they would not have to deal with the influx of towing. Also, students would not have to carry the burden of coughing up a couple hundred dollars. This all stems back to the parking issue the University refuses to acknowledge.
Kim Way, a representative from the company hired by the University to develop a new plan for campus says, “You have more parking than you need and more than your peer institutions.” This statement is so utterly incorrect. He obviously doesn’t have to go through the hassle of finding parking to get to class.
Without a comfortable amount of student parking, students will continue to park in prohibited lots. But of course the University doesn’t mind because they get to reap the benefits of our struggle. We get towed and they get paid. With a deal like that, why would they even attempt to fix the issue?
If the University wants to continue to ignore the parking issue, they should at least give students a break when they park in restricted areas. Students would greatly appreciate it if the University could look into other ways to help students with parking and towing issues. An email or text would surely be a good way to remind students who truly forgot to move their cars before they are towed and students are charged.
Casey Pimentel is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from The Woodlands, Texas.
