Campus parking get’s a facelift.

    The Big Blue parking terrace and the Blue Premium parking lot have some new machinery that intends to speed up the payment process while exiting the structures.
    According to James Nye, director of parking and transportation services, one would have the option to pay at the ticket reader, the employee booth or with the new stand alone parking booth.
    “Stand alone parking allows you to pay in advance for either parking in the Blue Premium or the Big Blue terrace. You scan your ticket and pay. You have an allotted amount of time to get to your car and exit the structure. That should make it go more quickly by having alternate options of payment,” Rebecca Turner, a staff assistant in the parking and transportation office said.
    This booth is located at the bottom of the South staircase in the Big Blue parking terrace.
    According to the parking and transportation advisory committee’s new resolution, the Big Blue parking terrace and the Blue Premium parking lot are two of the most used parking lots on campus. These parking structures are important to the success of student life functions on campus. The Big Blue parking terrace has a capacity of 317 stalls. Currently, 100 permits are allotted to the faculty/staff of the university and the remaining 217 stalls are available to the public. The Blue Premium lot has 155 stalls; 15 are dedicated to service vehicles/disabled permits and 142 are left for students with a Blue permit.
    Last semester these two parking structure’s work hours were from 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m., Monday - Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. Fridays. Once closed, the gates of the structures would open and let vehicles out without charge.
    “People would park there all day and leave when the gates go up. We’d have as many as 125 - 150 vehicles leave when the gates go up,” Nye said.
    The hours have now changed and parking in these two structures will be a 24 hour business. There will be no more raising the gate at 10 p.m. to let vehicles out. The gate will now drop at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and will raise at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Student functions will have free parking Friday night’s and weekends. There will still be a booth attendant to assist people from 7:30 a.m. - 11 p.m. week days. During off hours one will have to pay at the new ticket reader.
    “It really encourages the students to be in there for the time they need to be. We’re not saying you can’t use it for an emergency place to park but just to pay for your time that you’re in there, rather than just having your friends bring you up at night to get your car,” Turner said.
    According to Nye, some concerns have been expressed on how this 24 hour change could effect the student center and their functions on week nights. To offset this issue, the Aggie shuttle is now running until 9pm.
    “You can pick up every 10 minutes and it’ll take you around campus or down to the stadium parking lot and that has really helped a lot,” Nye said.
    According to Nye, campus might see a new parking terrace in the next 5-10 years.