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New parking regulations, which took effect September 1st, come as the result of the
increased demand for parking. These guidelines, first mentioned at the Parking and
Transportation Services’ (PATS) strategy presentations last year, designate all academic
parking lots for use by commuter students, faculty and staff only. Resident students,
a group that now includes the Park Point apartment tenants, are restricted from the
academic lots during business hours (5 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
This restriction is a significant change from years past, where upperclassman resident
drivers were allowed to park in general academic spaces after 1 p.m. Resident students
were also eligible to purchase reserved parking passes, which is now not an option.
PATS embarked on a fact-finding project last year, in an effort to better plan for the transportation problems of the future. One of the stated goals of the project was to, “Provide
parking for those groups for whom no reasonable alternative to driving exists.”
The new regulations, according to a PATS presentation in April, are a short term
solution to accomplish this goal. In addition, PATS has doubled the number of buses
(starting with two, ending with four) operating on the RIT shuttle route. The schedule
now allows for service to each bus stop every 10 minutes.
Resident students, who learned of these restrictions on August 1st, have not been
terribly happy, and have even formed Facebook groups with titles like “RIT Parking
Regulations are Miserable,” in an effort to organize complaints. According to the
group, despite the increase in shuttle service, “depending on where you’re coming
from and where you’re going, it could still take almost a half hour to get there.”
Parking and Transportation Services could not be reached for comment.
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