With students coming back to campus for the spring semester, news that changes were coming to the parking situation raised many ears.
There were many instances last semester in 2021 where there were not enough parking spaces for the number of students, faculty and staff that were on campus.
Students were forced to walk upwards of a mile to get to class, amid construction projects that have only made parking more limiting and hard to find.
Surprisingly, the new parking development fell short when students received an email from the UCA Police Department detailing the new metered parking spots on campus.
The university adopted a metered parking service that is contactless with the website and app ParkMobile.
“Starting this spring semester, The University of Central Arkansas is pleased to offer the ParkMobile app as a convenient pay by phone solution for access to our metered parking spaces,” the UCAPD explained in the email.
These parking spaces are located near the HPER Center, the Student Center and Schichtl. There are more metered areas to be made soon which will be near Lewis Annex and Donaghey Hall.
The contactless metered system sounds easy enough to use and the website and app seem to be working well for students.
Sergeant Micheal Hopper of the UCAPD said, “We were originally approached by students in a project management class with the idea, and we began to look into different companies and options,” Sergeant Micheal Hopper of the UCAPD said according to The Echo.
“The technology has now gotten to the point where contactless payments are mostly hassle-free.”
The email explains how simply anyone can use the app to pay for parking, or other means to pay.
“You can visit the ParkMobile website, download the mobile app or call the toll-free number on the ParkMobile sign to register for a ParkMobile account,” the email said. “You will need your license plate number, space number, and a method of payment.”
Uca.edu details information regarding the metered parking such as the price, rules and regulations, and addresses common questions.
The metered parking will be $1.00 per hour with a minimum of 1 hour along with a $0.35 transaction fee for each parking spot.
Students will have to pay again if they move spaces on campus before their time has expired.
Parkmobile will even send live updates as time goes on to avoid any ticketing or expired time on a parking space.
Hopper explained that the university had been looking into this change for the past year.
The initiative is great by UCAPD if a campus must have metered parking, then make it accessible to your students and faculty.
But what about the students who do not have access to a cell phone?
The metered parking no longer accepts coins as a means of payment since UCA has updated to ParkMobile.
While the university continues to make seemingly progressive choices regarding campus, they may just be pushing out low income students, or students that do not have reliable access to the internet.
While students have differing opinions on the new parking system, we all know that if you do not pay to park in a metered parking spot, the UCAPD will ticket you.
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