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"College kids with cars pay a parking premium if they keep their wheels on campus," reports the Washington Post, in the best news I've heard all day. It's expensive, and colleges intend to keep it that way. George Washington University students, for example, must pay $550 per semester for a parking decal and Georgetown students pay even more -- $656 per semester -- to park at satellite lots in Rosslyn; other Metro area schools must pay similarly high fees to keep a car at school. This seems wholly reasonable for schools located in an urban environment that is well served by public transportation. College campuses, too, are designed to offer students many (if not all) the services they require in one place, from health clinics to computer software stores. Granted, out-of-state students might ought need to go home once in a while -- but where in the U.S. can you not fly for $600 round-trip once a semester? If anything, it seems that students -- who, I'm sure we can all agree, don't really do anything with those cars but cause trouble -- aren't paying enough to park their jalopies in the District.
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We went to the Macy's at 12th & G this morning for the Black Friday morning specials. There was a sh
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I suppose there aren't too many places you can't fly for $600 once a semester. But what about twice?
There are plenty of good reasons for anyone who lives in DC (or any city) to own a car, and those reasons are no different for students. I wouldn't say the fees Georgetown and other schools charge are outrageous, but I wouldn't go so far as to conclude that students aren't paying enough, either.
Lastly - "students -- who, I'm sure we can all agree, don't really do anything with those cars but cause trouble..." Please tell me you're not serious.
I'm all for schools making students pay to own cars but I disagree with the schadenfreude. In most cases, its a good idea to discourage undergraduates to have yet another distraction from their studies. However some students do need cars for jobs and I think should get an exemption if they and their parents have limited income. Cars deliver pizza, haul musical instruments to gigs, a go to places that public transportation doesn't serve well.
Your exemption ought to imply broadly to a number of levies on automobiles: congestion pricing in New York, for example, should exempt delivery drivers who make more than n percent of their income using an automobile.
As for other anecdota here about driving: Yes yes yes yes, I realize there are plenty of reasons why a college student might need to drive a car, just like anyone else. But there are plenty of externalities associated with college students driving their cars in Washington, DC, and those externalities should be priced and it would appear that universities feel that they should price parking high so as to discourage driving.
I went to college in Austin, Texas, where there is no public transportation system to speak of. So I felt I needed a car because it's Texas and you need a car to get around that state. But the fact of the matter is that there is a price at which I would not prefer to park on campus and pay for a sticker, and at that price I'd instead decide to buy a bicycle, walk more, get around the other inconveniences.
AU is a case wherein many students own and drive cars but enough do not that the school provides adequate public transportation. And it is basically adequate, even if it is far from perfect and complicated by a lack of student housing. Nevertheless, maintaining the roads that these students drive on (while they are in school and after they leave) is expensive, as is providing the parking spaces for them at all the places they prefer to drive their cars to. I'm saying: pricing parking at a level to discourage students from driving is a good and reasonable priority for the District if not for each and every student.
There are something like 60 bus lines that crisscross the UT Austin campus. Far more than service any District university campus. You owned a car because it was convenient, not because you needed it. The same reason District students own cars. Like most people with an overdeveloped sense of moral superiority, you are the very person you criticize.
Well, sure, but I was a college student back then, and I grew up in a car-dependent culture. What the hell did I know?
http://unsuckdcmetro.blogspot.com/
^^ this is why we drive.
I didn't realize that I was up to no good when I drive to my babysitting job after class or when I buy groceries that would be difficult for one person to take home by public transport. It takes 45 minutes to get to Silver Spring by metro from my house, but only 10 in a car. Sometimes trains are 18 minutes apart and with such an *incredibly reliable* metro and bus system one can expect several delays. Our time is just as valuable as anyone else in the district, especially since we use it interning for you for free.
I still don't understand why people 'intern for free'. I call it slave labor. Anyone who interns for free is encouraging bad practices.
ha! in a lot of fields, including mine, there is no such thing as a paid internship, and most companies aren't willing to take on paid employees for a couple of months at a time. sure, it sucks not to get paid for a summer, but I wouldn't have gotten a full-time position right after graduation without a few unpaid internships under my belt. that's just the way it is, especially in the world of arts non-profits.
because I sucked it up and gained experience engaging in "slave labor" for a few summers, I was not unemployed for a single day after I finished school. it's twisted, but it pays off.
As a huge advocate of public transportation, it really pains me to have to disagree with your assessment, but as an alumna of an AU graduate program, I understand exactly why students might need to have a car on campus. AU doesn't offer on-campus housing for grad students (it's also limited for undergrads) and its campus not located in a part of the city that makes it particularly easy to walk or use public transportation to get to off-campus jobs, internships, interviews or other school-related events in more central locations around town. The AU shuttles are helpful, but far from as reliable or comprehensive as they'd need to be to make this a really viable option, especially for an off-campus student. For me, a car was the only option to ensure that I could get the most out of my time and take advantage of the other opportunities my program offered.
With the exception of GW, it seems to me that the residential universities in town are in more or less the same boat: they're in neighborhoods that don't have ideal public transportation options. Maybe the real issue isn't spoiled college kids looking to take the easy way out, but universities not fully meeting the transportation, housing and other needs of their students.
One of dcist's worst posts to date.
I am a DC college student with a car here in the city. I live off campus and pay to park in my building's garage. I find it reasonable that colleges here charge quite a bit to park- so does everywhere else. But as for your statement that "students...don't really do anything with those cars but cause trouble," here is what I do with my car:
-drive to my internship in Mclean
-get groceries
-pick up the kids I babysit from school and bring them home (to a non-metro accessible area, especially with young children)
Maybe you attended a school out in the middle of nowhere but college kids in DC have lives just like everyone else-- what do you think we're doing with our cars anyway?
That's nothing to those Georgetown students that bring brand new Land Rovers to school. That always shocked me.
You know, I'd love to use public transportation, and it's possible from here, but even with the exorbitant parking fee, Metro fares have risen so much that it's still cheaper to drive. Since when did public transport become such a luxury that it's cheaper to drive?
Weekly metrobus passes cost $11, while a weekly metrorail pass (with restrictions) goes for under $27. Comparing on cost alone, paying over $500 for a semester of parking is likely to be more expensive, right?
and the metro reaches Philadelphia, New York, and other places students travel to when they go home?
Kriston
"If anything, it seems that students -- who, I'm sure we can all agree, don't really do anything with those cars but cause trouble -- aren't paying enough to park their jalopies in the District."
That is a bit snarky, eh!
There may be as many reasons to have a car at school as there are students. All aspects of a college education are expensive and there will be those who have no difficulty paying for parking and there will be those who do.
Sometimes journalistic restraint is called for.
Groundbreaking reporting here. Repeating a WaPo story and then offering the keen insight that any student must be an idiot to pay $650 for parking after paying $35,000 a year in tuition.
Maybe Kriston could have spent a few more seconds thinking before writing and ponder the question, why does Georgetown University charge students $650 a year for the use of a square of pavement, while only charging $150 to faculty? If the reason for charging students high fees as stated in the article is to discourage congestion and encourage using public transit, why aren't they doing so with faculty as well?
Kriston, Kriston, Kriston...
"Edgy vs. objectionable" is a fine line, capisci?
See if you're going to be nasty to a segment of your readers--a stinky, lazy, stupid, boozer segment--you've at least got to be funny and decisive about it. Mealy-mouthed snark ain't going to cut it.
This post was just stupid. 10 years ago I was here as a college student and I had a car...which made taking a full load of classes, working and interning much easier when the closest metro station was a mile away. Never got in trouble, never arrested, not so much as a parking or speeding ticket. Get something more worthwhile to rant about.
oh---and the comment about interning for free being slave labor---do you think that about volunteers for your favorite charities? Or maybe you don't believe in such things.
Never got in trouble, never arrested, not so much as a parking or speeding ticket.
Your failure as a college student is no reason to go picking on Kriston.
It MIGHT be.
Are you implying that because you were a model citizen when you owned a car, trouble caused by your fellow students can't be relevant to the discussion? Because you would be right to do so; here at DCist, anecdotes count as data.
I was a GW student that lived in VA (not metro friendly location) for senior year. And I had my car on campus my Sophomore and Junior years as well. The biggest pain, though was at the time you couldn't get s Student Reciprocity parking permit in Zone 2 (GW, Georgetown, etc.). (http://dmv.dc.gov/serv/parking/Reciprocity.shtm). The only way I could park on the street for more than 2 hours was by making my dorm my residence (license, registration, taxes, insurance) and that was bitch! Having my car was important to me because I had many activities and obligations outside the city. I think there should be a discount for commuter students, and a lottery for on-campus parking.
The only way I could park on the street for more than 2 hours was by making my dorm my residence (license, registration, taxes, insurance) and that was bitch!
Wait, they made you go through all the steps that normal DC residents have to go through, just to park on the street? Don't they know you're better than they are?
all other DC schools allow for reciprocity -- ie, a student can park on city streets in the zone of the school when they live in on-campus housing. However back when I went to GW, this was not an option. I believe some students took this up with the city, though.
There is/was a discount for commuter students. I'm too lazy to do the research for you, but this has always been the price model for on-campus vs. commuter parking. Albeit, commuter parkers had time restrictions (e.g., not overnight).
How is $600 expensive? I mean, compared to the cost of tuition. Makes complete sense to me. I'd triple it.
Sorry to nitpick, but it really chaps my ass when people confuse George Washington with Georgetown. Christ, how hard is it to read the article you're trying to pass off as original content?
"George Washington University students pay $550 a semester for a parking decal, and students who commute to Georgetown University pay $656 a semester to park at satellite lots in Rosslyn."
Hi gwkid: That shouldn't have appeared that way in the post. I made the mistake but corrected it before it went live—I think I made a version tracking mistake.
Since this is based on a reheated AAA report, why not round it out by looking at AAA's most recent report calculating the total cost of car ownership?
http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2009/04/the-cost-of-keeping-a-car.html
Take it with a grain of salt- there are a lot of assumptions built in that are difficult to pin down (fuel costs) and that don't apply to college students in DC. For example, insurance costs are based on a 47 year old married male who lives in a small midwestern town. And it doesn't include parking costs at all, as far as I can tell.
Bottom line is that cars are expensive.
Whether $656 is a lot of money or a little at Georgetown is almost moot because the charge is the lowest hurdle in the school's parking policy for students.
"Students residing in the District of Columbia or in Virginia at zip codes 22201, 22203 (east of Glebe Road), 22207 (east of Glebe Road-Lorcum Lane-Military Road boundary), 22209, 22210, and 22216, are not eligible for a parking permit."
And even for everyone who lives far enough away, there's a lottery, too. All for a satellite lot in Rosslyn.
Parking at Georgetown
Exactly. Kriston didn't really do her research. During my 4 years at Georgetown I gladly would have paid $656 for a semester on-campus parking permit, but no one who lived in the District of Columbia was allowed to buy one.
So really, very few Georgetown students can park in on-campus parking garages. Some students will rent townhouses that have a driveway, and park their cars there. Even fewer go through the hassle of changing residency and getting a Zone 2 sticker.
"...His research..." But I think I made that mistake once too. Otherwise good comment.
What about part-time students? I've tried taking public transit to my graduate classes directly from work and it takes nearly 2 hours-- there just isn't enough time for me to put in a full day at work and then take the metro/bus to class. Furthermore, by the time I leave class and dash across campus the last bus home for the night has already left. So I have to drive.
Of course, this is GMU so the parking permits are substantially cheaper.
Neighbors fault students for their sense of entitlement and "bad attitude", yet have no qualms about making arguments such as this one which rely on the same contemptuous principles. Students are not scapegoats for everything that is wrong with town-gown relationships in DC, and it's time for residents to take a step back and realize they could use an attitude adjustment as well.
There are a few people above that have hit on the point about "no matter how much University Parking charges a student, if the need is so great then they will pay whatever it is they need to have their car on campus for reasons x, y and z".
When I parked on campus at GW as a student (AY '06-'07), the monthly price for a sticker was $220. I believe the semester price for parking was about as much then as it is now. But, there are some students like myself who couldn't front $500+ all at once in the beginning of each semester.
On another note, GU students really pay more than GW students do to park in Rosslyn ?? Are you joking me?! I thought living on the extreme opposite corner of campus to the only two garages on-campus students could park in despite my own dorm having below-ground parking (but, for faculty and guests only and no overnight) was bad. C'mon GU drivers.. Having to take the GUTS (or walk across Key, etc.) to get to your car in Rosslyn seems...ridiculous. However, when I parked my sophomore year at GW, I was able to go the entire academic year without having to pay for overnight parking. Albeit, it involved having to take the University shuttle and walk a short distance to the only street I know of that have absolutely no signs or zone indications/restrictions. Now knowing that GU students do something similar, but actually pay an exorbitant amount in the process while I do it for free -- this makes my small victory against exorbitant University parking fees back then all the more sweeter.
p.s. Many other students have discovered the spot where I parked back then, and that area is now aggressively regulated and ticketed as a result.
Wow, you sound a little old. Does no one remember college? I remember not having a job on campus, therefore the need for personal transport. DC, MD, and VA are commuter states, hence the heavy traffic flow. Why not use public transport you say? Please see Unsuck Metro.
Feh, they'll just roll it into their loans. After all, that's what the law students do with their daily lattes.
At least it sounds like Georgetown monitors how many parking spaces there are. GMU sold infinite tickets, meaning after dropping green on being able to park, you STILL wouldn't find a space if your first class was after 10am. (Learned my lesson after the first semester: either have classes start at nine, or take everything in the evening.)
"students...aren't paying enough to park their jalopies in the District"
I'm pretty sure GW and Georgetown students don't drive "jalopies." They're called BMWs.
This seems wholly reasonable for schools located in an urban environment that is well served by public transportation.
one, the proper grammar here would be "well-served," not "well served.
two, do you really live in d.c.? have you ever been to Georgetown or AU or Trinity University? These are not well-served by public transportation, especially if you live in one of the huge percentages of the city NOT served by a metro.
I'm all about bashing cars, but I've had more run-ins with cars, as a cyclist, sporting DC, MD, and VA tags than from those that are from further away, assuming most students in the District come from further away than DC, MD, and VA.
I'm a GW grad student and love the public transportation option. But anyone who calls GU or AU well-served by public transport is clearly not riding buses to these places.
I've been at GU for 14 years as a student and employee, all without a car. Between Metrobus and GUTS, there are 6 different bus lines that bring you right to campus. The GUTS runs every twenty minutes from early morning to late at night during the week, and every 5-10 minutes during rush hours. While the Metrobuses may not keep up to the minute with the schedule, they usually come pretty damned close. There are plenty reasonably reliable ways to get to GU without a car. Most of them may not get you here faster, but many will.
For those questioning why so few spaces on campus at GU, one word: neighbors. GU actually has unused parking spaces on campus, but no one can park there because zoning restrictions cap the number of spaces that can be used.