Many Brigham Young University students have said that they are fed up with parking difficulties in Provo and fed up with the fines.
A BYU-approved apartment complex recently towed an entire parking lot of cars from a lot that they originally designated as free parking and put the towing charges on the students.
“It was just really frustrating because I expected that I would have a parking spot available. I was told that I could park somewhere and then ended up having to pay a fee to get my car back,” said a BYU student.
Students must pay for an on-campus parking pass, but some lots are more than half a mile away from the closest classroom. These fees add to the already thousands of dollars students pay in tuition yearly, as well as housing and other living costs, not to mention the university’s vigilant parking security.
“I just think it’s frustrating, considering that we’re all already paying tuition, and you know, we have a lot of other fees to pay,” another student said.
Most apartment complexes near campus have few visitor parking spots, specifically in the area south of BYU’s campus. This is mostly because of the heavy population during the school year, as the majority of BYU’s nearly thirty-two-thousand students occupy the city. This increased population and lack of available parking causes traffic during rush hour and major delays for those commuting to and from campus.
“I think when all of us are collectively having the same problem that there should be some kind of solution or at least discussion about what we can do to fix it,” a student said.
BYU students have struggled with parking in the past and the problems will likely continue to increase as BYU’s student population rises.
