Portland State’s Office of Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) is replacing eight parking pay stations with new machines and adding two locations this fall, at cost of $80,000, with each machine priced at $8000.
According to Sarah Renkens, manager of TAPS, the replacements will accommodate an increased need for parking space on campus. Currently, the university manages 13 parking facilities with 3,948 total parking spaces—580 spaces are book marked for hourly and daily parking, while the rest are reserved or permit-only.
The number of hourly parking spaces increases from 580 to 800 spaces this fall, reflecting increased enrollment at PSU. The two new pay-to-park spaces are also a response to the exploding student population.
One added space will be near the Market Center Building at Market Street and Fourth Avenue; the other will be in the upper lot of Blumel Hall.
According to Renken, the two new areas are deemed “high demand,” especially for university visitors.
“We generally don’t want visitors coming to campus once or twice a year to park several blocks away,” Renken said.
The changes help TAPS parking-enforcement efforts as well. The “pay-by-space” system allows parking attendants to cut the process of walking to check on cars one by one; instead, staff will be able to run reports from the machine showing which spaces are paid or about to expire.
And guests won’t need to visit their cars to check on pay slips, Renken said.
According to Renken, the system allows for the addition of new features in the next six to 12 months. One of the potential advances is the option to renew parking via text message when parking is about to expire. This would help students avoid paying overtime fines, she said.
Another potential feature is a reloadable “smart card,” a prepaid debit option that should appeal to parents.
Renken said that 7 percent of her office’s revenue flows from parking citation, with the other 93 percent coming from the sale of parking permits.
Because the new machines allow students to pay for parking in 15-minute increments instead of full hours, Renken said she believes her office will write fewer citations .
The new machines are expected to reduce costs while increasing accessibility by offering a multilingual interface with English, French and Spanish.
Most importantly, none of the dollars used to move this project are coming from tuition or state funds, according to Renkens.
“We are funded primarily by parking-permit revenue,” Renkens said. “We have reserve funds for larger projects and purchases like this, which we’ve been saving for.”
The new system is expected to launch in September.