Last quarter, Emilia Bucklew had a presentation at noon. Bucklew, a nutrition senior, arrived to campus at 11:45 a.m. and began her search. All it took was a few circles around the Grand Avenue parking structure for the panic to set in.
Not one parking spot was open.
Ten minutes passed, then 15. Bucklew was officially late for her presentation and had yet to find a spot. Eventually, she spotted someone walking — back to their car thankfully. When Bucklew finally made it to her presentation she was late, frazzled and furious at the parking situation on campus.
Students like Bucklew are paying anywhere from $500 to $700 annually for a permit to park on campus, regardless of if they can actually find a spot. Often, the H lots and Grand Avenue parking structure, the main places on campus that offer student parking, are filled to capacity by 9 a.m according to Bucklew.
Parking has been a continuous issue on Cal Poly’s campus. 735 parking spots were lost last year due to construction and the price for the annual Grand Permit has increased $42 since the 2023-24 academic year.
With Cal Poly moving forward with its plans to increase undergraduate student enrollment from 22,000 to 25,000 by 2030, many students are left wondering if parking on campus will continue to get worse.
READ MORE: Cal Poly wants to enroll 25k students by 2030
Seasoned commuters employ a variety of strategies to find parking on campus — like when to arrive before a 12 p.m. class to have a better chance of finding a spot or the perfect time to roll down a window to ask a walking student if they’re leaving campus.
It’s not foolproof, but it’s necessary.
One of the ways students try to alleviate parking stress is by sharing a parking permit. If one person has class in the earlier half of the day, another person can use the permit in the latter half of the day — as long as the cars associated with one permit are not on campus at once.
Students can add a total of two cars to each permit, but this option is intended for use of loaner or rental vehicles, according to university spokesperson Keegan Koberl.
Parking permits are nontransferrable and adding a car to one’s permit that does not belong to the holder can constitute citations, permit revocation, and vehicle towing or booting, Koberl explained.
This means that students who wish to have a parking permit must personally foot a $500 to $700 bill yearly, instead of splitting the price and sharing the permit.
Even if one has the money to purchase a permit, a lottery must first be joined. This academic year, 3,773 students signed up for the lottery to purchase a commuter permit. Out of the 3,773, 2,834 students were awarded a spot to buy a permit. Those who weren’t awarded a chance to purchase parking are left to find alternate ways to commute to campus.
Revenue from parking fees, which includes permits purchased by students, employees and visitors, amounted to $1,698,644 for the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the 2024-25 budget book. The total revenue from parking fines, EV charging, Mustang Express and bike locker sales was $5,755,305 in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Students say parking limitations put them at risk
At the beginning of the 2024–25 academic year, Will DeGirolamo, an engineering senior and employee at Mustang Lanes, signed up for this commuter lottery. When he wasn’t able to get a parking permit, he began to think about the impact it would have on his education and job.
DeGirolamo needed a way to park on campus. With class, work and living far from Cal Poly, busing daily or carpooling with friends wasn’t a realistic option.
DeGirolamo thought he had a solution. Since he’s worked at the bowling alley since 2022, he contacted Transportation and Parking Services to try to get a staff spot. But since he is a student, he doesn’t qualify.
“I basically just risk losing my entire shift’s earnings to a parking ticket unless I can carpool every time,” DeGirolamo said.
For students like DeGirolamo who don’t live within a realistic walking distance from Cal Poly, a permit on campus is nearly a necessity.
Kiana McCrea, a nutrition senior, has a 35 minute commute to campus. McCrea often stays on campus from 7:40 a.m., her first class of the day, until 6 p.m., despite having a three-hour break between her classes out of fear of not finding a spot when returns.
After 9 a.m. all the parking spots are taken, McCrea said, rendering a trip home to Paso Robles useless unless she wants to spend time circling the parking spot waiting for someone to leave.
On top of the $500 fee McCrea pays for her annual permit, she often has to pay for alternate parking when the commuter lots are full. Weekly she pays $16 for a spot that won’t even allow her to park for her full class time, she said.
“Sometimes I’m even worried that I’m gonna come down and there’s going to be no parking,” McCrea said. “And I’m like, okay. Am I just going to have to turn around and drive all the way back home? I just spent all that money on gas.”
Part of the reason why permit holders can’t find spots on campus is due to overselling.
Commuter permit lots have a capacity of 1,475. This year, the university sold 1,853 spots, overselling by 20%. The Grand Commuter permit lots have a capacity of 600 and 658 permits were sold — overselling by 9%, according to Koberl.
According to Koberl, commuter lots are oversold because occupancy varies based on time of day and time of week.
“If there are 1,000 spaces in a lot, the same 1,000 people aren’t going to be parked there at any given time,” Koberl said in an email. “Some stay for a few hours, some stay all day. Some are here on M/W, some are here on T/THU. That’s why you see more permits sold than there are physical spaces.”
Parking stress grows after the loss of 735 Spaces
Esme Sanchez, an architecture junior, has been working as a Community Service officer for around 2 years now. The CSOs work paid, 30-minute shifts to direct traffic at the intersection of Highland and University drive during rush hour traffic.
The morning shifts run from 7:30 a.m. to 8:10 a.m. and around 8:45 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.. The CSOs are brought out again in the afternoon for the 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. rushes.
While she hasn’t noticed a huge increase in traffic since the loss of 735 student and staff spots that were once the K1 and K2 lots, Sanchez says the mornings are more backed up than they used to be. Traffic will die down slightly after the first two weeks of school, but it starts to pick up again around midterms and finals, according to Sanchez.
Parking demand will continue to increase as the number of enrolled students grows.
The University plans to add 44 spaces along Poly Canyon Village for students and staff by the end of winter quarter and continues to encourage students to utilize non-driving options like SLO Transit, RTA and walking or biking to campus, according to Koberl.
READ MORE: New dorms will affect over 700 existing parking spaces
“Parking in the core of campus is very impacted, in addition to students, staff and faculty utilizing parking on campus there are a multitude of hosts and many events which also stain our parking resources,” Koberl said.
Students like Bucklew and McCrea want to see additional spaces made, especially for those who commute from far distances and truly need to park on campus. If not several new lots, at least one extra lot would help ease the issue, Bucklew said.
“There’s definitely a demand,” she said.
At the end of the day, all students want is for the university to acknowledge that parking has become an issue and to offer meaningful solutions.
“I mean, I’m no expert, you know. I would hope that they’re just a little bit more understanding of this issue and try to implement things to help students out,” McCrea said.