By SARA PANAG
An average of more than 30,000 traffic citations are issued a year on campus ranging from parking citations to moving violations.
Most of the traffic citations given out on campus are 'no BYU permit' or 'wrong zone', said Lt. Steve Baker, manager of Parking and Traffic Services.
Baker said he would rather have the available parking space than the money.
'The money isn't even the issue for us,' he said. 'It goes into the BYU General Fund.'
BYU Parking and Traffic Services is constantly working on ways to alleviate the parking problems rather than pass out citations.
'(BYU's vice-president) said, 'You are a service and we don't want you particularly worring about bringing in money or not bringing in money,'' Baker said.
'BYU's parking and traffic is not revenue generating. Every other university is in it for the money,' said Denise Haney, Parking and Traffic Services supervisor.
'If we were in it for the money, we could make the university two or three times as much,' Baker said.
Other universities sell permits two to four times the price of BYU permits. In addition, visitor lots of other universities are paid or have parking meters compared to free visitor parking at BYU.
Those who are issued more than seven citations in a twelve-month period, whether the tickets have been paid or not, are banned from driving or parking on campus. BYU sees them as habitual offenders.
'It has to do with ethics. When many, many people violate rules and regulations it takes up many, many places and creates many, many problems,' Baker said.
A letter is sent out to those who have been banned from driving on campus, which they can appeal, but they are required to attend honor code violation counseling, Baker said.
When people come in to appeal an individual citation like 'wrong zone' the most common explanation given is that they ran in for only a few minutes.
Whitney Smith, a senior from Plano, Texas majoring in public relations said she has received tickets for parking in the A-lot when running an errand. 'If you need to run an errand you have to park far away.'
In an effort to cut down on the number of citations, several preventative measures, such as more 15-minute load/unload stalls on central campus and a gate access system, which will be put in on an experimental basis spring of 1998, are being taken by BYU's traffic division.
Multilevel parking has been looked at several times but issues of space and money are the biggest deterrents.
'It's very expensive to build and that's tithing money,' Baker said.
Erik Rasmussen, a senior from Winnetka, Ill., majoring in political science said BYU has done much to alleviate parking problems.
'I don't want to see everything around campus turned into asphalt,' Rasmussen said.
Overnight parking in the lots isn't allowed because that would be preferential treatment, and coordinating residents to move off the lot before commuter students get on campus would be impossible, Baker said.
BYU's limited parking has also flowed over to Provo City's roads. For Baker and Kim Burke, Provo City's parking enforcement supervisor, it is a big problem.
The city paints curbs, puts up new signs, has parking time-limits and patrols regularly.
The city's citations for overtime are lower compared to other cities, so they can be paid off promptly, but if four tickets go into triple default, where the fine is tripled, then the vehicle is impounded.
'Hopefully, people will realize that it's cheaper to buy a permit than pay the ticket,' Burke said.
Despite, the number of lots on campus, sometimes a certain lot may become full, but there are R lots that are usually empty, like the Marriott Center, Baker said.
Because of the number of citations given on campus students do run into difficulty with BYU traffic division.
MaryAnn Munson, a senior from Claremont, Calif., double majoring in music and elemetary education got tickets on her record that her brother received on his car. Munson paid for them not knowing they could be appealed. The tickets remain on her record.
Cristina Houston, a senior from San Antonio, Texas majoring in film had registered her boyfiend's car so she could use it on campus. Her boyfriend got several tickets, paid them and didn't think it necessary to tell her. Later, Houston got a letter saying she had more than eight tickets, and went to appeal.
Her appeal board was made up of two traffic supervisors, two faculty and several Provo residents. Houston didn't understand why Provo residents were on the board since they aren't regularly on campus, or know students' difficulty in finding parking. As she explained her situation and that the tickets were not hers, she felt the blame was put on her.
'I felt like I had to go in there and plead for mercy,' Houston said.
Baker said students need to let BYU traffic know who the citations belong to as soon as they find out, but it does takes time to get it resolved.
Usually, when students come in to appeal their citations they are lectured to set them straight in order to help the student avoid getting ticketed, Baker said.
Parking enforcement on campus may seem strict, but there are codes that BYU needs to follow, Baker said. The Provo City fire department told Baker that should a fire happen in the coal dump area (south-east of the BYU Bookstore) big rigs would be needed to bring the fire under control. In the worst case scenario, if the fire isn't controlled in time the school may burn down. Thus, the need for available room on campus.
It is necessary to look at the worst case scenario and prevent it rather than take a chance.
'If it takes an ambulance an extra minute to get there ... and a person dies, it's not worth it,' Baker said.
'Because people are not obeying ... we have to enforce on Sunday,' Haney said. 'We would love to let our officers not work on Sunday.'
On campus lots are patrolled regularly because people still try to get away with parking illegally.
'I think the parking is fair because you know when you're parking illegally,' said Rasmussen, who has been issued citations for 'wrong zone.'
'We are hoping to drop overall citations written by about 40 percent,' Baker said.
Parking is enforced during reading and final days. On Dec. 13, besides lots 7, 13, 14, 16 and 51, A lots are open to students.
During academic break Dec. 19 to Jan. 4, A-lots 1, 3, 4, 13, 14 and 51 are reserved for faculty and staff.
Parking and Traffic Services is online at www.byu.edu/stlife/up/traffic.