Can't find a good parking spot on campus? NC State Transportation says you are not alone

With NC State pushing for a complete return to campus for the 2021 fall semester, it brought just under 45,000 students, employees and faculty back into the swing of in-person events, reigniting the yearly rush to obtain parking permits. With 20,000 total spaces at its disposal, NC State Transportation’s parking services operation controls the planning, sale and monitoring of parking permits across campus.

Prior to the fall 2021 semester, parking services planned for 100% capacity on campus after discussions with the registrar’s office and University Housing, according to Caitlyn Blakelock, parking services manager. It did so while “tremendously short staffed” due to furloughs during fall 2020, according to Chris Dobek, assistant director of parking services and interim assistant director for facilities. The unit typically has 53 employees and let go of nearly a third of them and is yet to fill its staff as things return to normal.

Similarly, despite an envisioned return to normalcy for students, the effects of COVID-19 can still be felt in changing on-campus parking patterns. According to Dobek, due to the nature of residential permits, they’re sold 1:1, meaning one permit for each available space, but the commuter permits are typically oversold over spaces by 10-20%. The parking services unit was surprised to see that, due to changing parking patterns likely caused by the increase of hybrid classes and other COVID-19 measures, students are staying on campus for shorter periods of time.

“2015 through 2018, our peak parking was really 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. … If you go across campus now in any of our commuter lots between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m, you're going to say ‘Why don't they sell more permits, because there's plenty of space?’” Dobek said. “But by looking at the number of permits we've sold, people really shouldn't fit in parking locations right now.”

According to Blakelock, the parking services unit has sold more parking permits for commuter spaces this year than it typically has over the past five years to account for the shift. Dobek said the process for adding more permits occurs “daily,” and that as of Sept. 8, 7,154 commuter permits had been sold.

“We can run patrol cars through several times a day, and monitor those peak parking days — that Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday — look at the aggregate parking and then say, ‘Okay, based upon this three-day analysis, we can add 20 more permits,’” Dobek said. “And then once you get another week, you can add maybe 50 more permits.”

Dobek said the parking services team has to make sure that it plans for the worst even as it expands permit access. It does so in order to ensure that when, for example, special events happen, the parking decks can accommodate both the event and usual permit holders.

The team also sees more use of on-campus paid parking spaces, contrary to expectations entering the academic year.

“We were worried that the students would see these hourly parking spaces underutilized and be upset because we weren't selling parking permits for those locations,” Blakelock said. “But what we've actually found is the opposite. The hourly parking location especially at the Coliseum Deck, just earlier this week, was actually completely sold out at one point. It was completely full. So we are seeing quite a bit of students who have opted to utilize that hourly parking instead of purchasing a parking permit, because they're coming to campus so infrequently.”

Dobek said part of the demand for the hourly parking spaces also comes from students who have a permit for a farther away lot like the one on Varsity Drive, who are choosing to pay hourly to be closer to their classes. Blakelock said as more commuter permits are added, they are sold first to students already on the waiting list.

“One third of the people on our waiting list already have a parking permit,” Blakelock said. “So they might be parking in a place like Varsity that's a little bit further away from the main academic areas, and people don't really want to park there. So a lot of people who have Varsity permits are on the waiting list for places like Coliseum Deck or the Centennial Campus parking decks, because they want to be closer to those locations.”

With so much demand, not necessarily for parking in general, but for spaces close to the center of campus, Dobek encouraged students to look at alternative methods to get to campus such as utilizing the Wolfline.

“We have a park and ride location at Carter-Finley football stadium and then a second park and ride over on Dorothea Dix property with buses that run directly to campus so students could choose to park for free,” Dobek said. “Just pad your day with an hour so you allow yourself that 30-minute round trip where you can park for free at the park and rides, ride Wolfline and come to campus, do your business and then head back out.”

Beyond campus, there are few places where students can park for the day outside of the park and ride locations. Businesses around Mission Valley and Hillsborough Street often explicitly advertise that their parking is only for customers, and though Hillsborough Street has paid parking spots, they are split between students and customers at businesses.

Jeff Murison, the president and CEO of Live It Up! Hillsborough Street, said parking is “far and away” the top concern for community leaders on Hillsborough Street each year. Murison said that around four years ago, Live It Up! Hillsborough partnered with the University and the city of Raleigh to study the parking situation on the street. According to Murison, the study did lead to some tangible results though there is more to work on.

“We'd like to see some of the side streets that don't currently have meters, have meters installed,” Murison said. “That would force more turnover and cut down on the people that just park the car and leave it for the whole day. That means that spot can only serve one customer, whereas the parking professionals suggest that you really want the space to turnover and be able to accommodate six to 10 people a day.”

Though that collaboration did result in things like adjustment of parking rates and hours of paid metered parking, according to Murison, Dobek said there have been talks of even greater parking projects on Hillsborough Street.

“There has been talk of a partnership among the city and NC State and the restaurant areas to build a parking deck over there by North Residence Hall,” Dobek said. “Of course, they want us to pay for it. And again, we're a fee receipts [revenue] generated department. So there's not enough value for us to do that right now.”

According to Dobek, the parking services unit is an auxiliary unit which gets its funding from permit sales and keeps just 20% of parking tickets.

“Parking is just expensive,” Dobek said. “[A] new parking deck, pre-COVID, [cost about] $33,000 or $35 per space, and even surface lots were about $10,000 per parking space. And as a receipts-based office, again, all of our revenue comes from the sale of permit sales. And so we're very cautious with how we spend our money. We're very intentional with how we do that.”

Though adding additional parking near campus is costly, one positive is that Transportation currently has no construction-based debt, according to Dobek. Dobek said there are plans to add more parking spaces near campus.

“We're currently planning on adding approximately 425 spaces adjacent to the Varsity parking lot,” Dobek said. “So geographically, you've got the current Varsity parking lot and then the McKimmon Center, and sandwiched between the two are some dilapidated white one story chicken barns. We've been gifted that property and that'll become a new surface lot for commuter parking, about 425 parking spaces there. That's currently in development as we speak today, we should be parking students there in 2023.”