Officials are cracking down on students parking in the Bryan Center garage.
Duke Parking and Transportation emailed a memo to the entire student body Aug. 29 to inform them the access to Parking Garage IV at the Bryan Center is no longer available at any time for residential student vehicles. Regardless, students continued to park in the garage throughout the semester. The space is now marked by a sign noting that it is reserved for visitors and employees only.
“The garage is the cornerstone in terms of visitor parking, and it also services PGIV permit holders” said Sam Veraldi, director of parking and transportation services.
He noted that employees who work in the general area of the garage—including those who work at the Barber Shop, University Stores, Divinity School and other West Campus buildings—can purchase the PGIV permits. These permit spots account for approximately 85 percent of the garage’s total parking spots. Available spots outside of the PGIV permit zone in the garage and the 55 surface spots directly outside are for visitors only, used especially for events held on West Campus, such as concerts, weddings, conventions and speakers.
Since Feb. 25, a sign reading “Garage Reserved for Event Attendees, PGIV Permit Holders, University Store, Chapel/Barber Shop ONLY” was placed at the entrance of the garage. The sign remained outside the garage even on days when there was no official event.
“We’re trying to [put out the sign] as a deterrent. I would say that if [the sign] was out, and there were no events, then we were low on spaces,” said Renee Adkins, special events and enforcement manager.
Veraldi added that students living off campus are allowed to park in the garage or surface lot because they are considered “classified visitors,” but he urged off-campus students who have a Blue Zone pass to park there.
Off-campus students who rely on parking in the garage, however, cannot check online to see if the parking spaces in the Bryan Center are booked for an event.
“It’s something that’s on our radar,” Veraldi said. “We could very easily put something on the TransLoc system on a day-to-day basis. I think that’s one area of improvement for us.”
The physical barrier prohibiting parking in the garage has infuriated students who are used to parking there daily. Sophomore Mia Hopper relied on parking in the garage for her off-campus job.
“I work for Campus Enterprises, and during three of the four academic days per week, I am delivering apparel to different student organizations and making trips to Hillsborough in between classes,” she said. “I need my car to be able to get to class on time.”
When asked about students such as Hopper with off-campus jobs, Veraldi recommended that students use the bus system to reach their car in a remote lot.
“She’s got a Central Campus permit, right? The bus runs with a high degree of frequency there, so she could go back and forth,” he said.
Duke Parking and Transportation provided input for the Bryan Center renovations and had the opportunity to re-evaluate parking logistics in that area, but Veraldi said no physical changes will be made to the current parking garage.
Despite the inconveniences that this new rule may cause, Duke Parking and Transportation has begun to develop a future model for parking. New technology allows for personalized passes based on the specific days or the amount of time that an individual needs to park in a certain lot. The technology would also help collect data about parking trends and patterns on campus.
“It would create a maximum opportunity for people to take advantage of,” Veraldi said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to start implementing [the technology] before the end of the school year.”
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