While Phoenix’s change in parking meter hours and rates has stirred conversation among residents and visitors alike, the city has made accommodations for students along with the changes. They’ve worked with ASU to accommodate students parking near the Downtown Phoenix campus by giving those meters longer hour limits.
The final cost of hourly parking for these meters has yet to be determined, however.
Members of ASU’s Undergraduate Student Government Downtown, including USGD President Frank Smith, have worked with city officials to share the concerns of downtown students.
“As we all know, it’s kind of expensive to come to college and we really wanted to express the concerns of our students because they weren’t in favor of these parking (fee) hikes,” Smith said.
Initially, Smith and his colleagues wrote letters to Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and other city-council members vouching for ASU students on the issue. In response, city council made some changes to their initial proposal, and sent an email outlining the changes to the USGD members.
“They were really willing to work with us,” Smith said.
Instead of a two-hour time limit after 4 p.m. on parking spots around campus, city council increased it to six hours for students who take classes for longer periods of time.
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The downtown-wide increase in parking-meter hours took effect on Aug. 18, with the hours of enforcement ending at 10 p.m. instead of 5 p.m., as previously imposed. Additionally, curbside parking that was once free on weekends and holidays is now regulated.
Although not yet in effect, a proposed increase in price for parking meters has drawn a lot of attention lately as well. One primary reason for the price increase will be to create turnover on the curbside parking spots, said Monica Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the city’s transportation department.
Hernandez said that full enforcement of the new parking-meter hours will start this week. The price increase, however, won’t be implemented until later this fall. Under the new program, the meters around downtown Phoenix will range from 50 cents to $4 per hour depending on demand and special events, according to the city of Phoenix website.
“One of the things we’re doing is working really closely with the business community,” Hernandez said. “Once someone parks, they stay there for a long time.”
Aspen Cooper, a sophomore kinesiology major at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus, said she disagrees with the new parking meter hours. She said that, although she parks in a parking garage on the southeast corner of second and Taylor streets, her friends have complained about the inconvenience of weekend enforcement.
“It doesn’t affect me, but it affects people that want to come visit me because they have to pay on the weekends now,” Cooper said. “I am upset with them raising the prices. It’s already expensive enough as it is.”
The price increases, once implemented around downtown Phoenix, will not be applied to the ASU campus for a six-month period, Hernandez said.
“During this six month period we will work very closely with ASU to determine what the price increase will be,” she said.
Smith said that throughout this “trial period,” the coin-only meters around campus will cost $1 per hour. He said the students that have been working with him will continue to try and keep the prices as low as possible when the six-month period is over.
“No one really likes prices to go up, so it’s not something that our students are too in favor of,” Smith said. “We did everything that we could, and we want to work with the city more to really express the concerns of the students.”
Contact the reporter at npbarone@asu.edu
