Beginning Aug. 15, Transportation and Parking will charge for parking on campus from 5 p.m. – 7:30 a.m., Monday through Friday. Daytime parking permits for students and employees will still be honored at night.
The new Weeknight Parking Program, approved by the UNC Board of Trustees in 2017 and announced to campus in April 2019, will launch in time for the 2019 fall semester, and Transportation and Parking Director Cheryl Stout wants to make sure nobody on campus or in the community is caught off guard.
“I have met with dozens of campus departments, student, staff and faculty groups, and with many partners in the community, to personally alert them of changes and address questions over the last year,” said Stout. “This is in addition to our standard forms of communication through email, web updates and social media. We don’t want to surprise anybody.”
One way the campus community is getting the news is via signage that is posted along key campus corridors and in parking lots. Even if someone misses the signage and other announcements and parks in a designated lot without the correct pass, Stout says that the focus at first will be on education, not ticketing for weeknight parking. Flyers with key program details will be left on the windshields of any vehicles that are parked without a permit.
According to Stout, Carolina staff whose work hours are between 5 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. should have already been made aware of the new program from their Department Parking Coordinator and had the chance to purchase a weeknight parking permit over the summer.
“Our main focus as we are launching the program is to reach students and visitors with the new information in as many ways possible,” she said. “We are also trying to share the different options for parking on campus at night to those daytime staff who don’t already have daytime parking permits.”
Students without a daytime permit may register their license plate online for access to weeknight parking (no additional cost at registration, first-year undergraduate students are not eligible).
Campus visitors may obtain a $1 temporary one-night pass for designated lots across campus through the ParkMobile App, ParkMobile toll-free phone number (877-727-5301), ParkMobile website, or a designated weeknight pay station and entering zone number 4500.
Daytime employees who don’t have a daytime permit can either purchase a $25 annual weeknight parking permit or purchase the $1 one-night temporary pass. Commuter Alternative Program (CAP) members are eligible for 20 free weeknight passes per semester.
The Weeknight Parking Program is part of the funding strategy for the Transportation and Parking 5-Year Plan. The Advisory Committee for Transportation (ACT) with broad-based campus representation works with Transportation and Parking every five years to make recommendations to develop a new plan that generates the revenue necessary to cover expenses, such as fare-free at boarding local and regional transit, Tar Heel Bikes bike share program, maintenance, operations, and other technology and service improvements.
The Weeknight Parking Program limits increases to daytime permit and hourly rates, Stout says, which have historically subsidized the overall cost of the parking system and a portion of the transit cost.
“The weeknight parking program sets up a funding approach with both daytime and evening users contributing to the system,” said Stout.
The University’s transportation and parking system is receipt supported, with funds from parking enforcement measures, such as parking tickets, earmarked for state K-12 public schools.
Weekend hours are 5 p.m. Friday until 7:30 a.m. Monday, and parking will remain available without a permit.
For more information on weeknight parking, visit the Weeknight Parking page.