The Cost to Provide Parking

How do we determine the cost of parking?

As an auxiliary enterprise, Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) does not receive any state funding. We must charge users in order to pay for parking garages and lots, shuttle service and Federal and State mandated alternative transportation activities. It costs $14 million to provide these services to the campus community. We set our rates in compliance with University policy to cover only the cost of operating the department, including infrastructure improvements such as new lots and garages.

Where does the money come from?

The majority of the funding (82%) is generated from permits and visitor revenue in parking garages and lots. Metered spaces and special events parking activity contribute 10% and only 8% of our funding comes from parking citations.

Graph of parking revenues

How do we spend the money we collect?

Graph of parking cost distribution

Who pays for the Cat Tran shuttle and other free services?

The on-campus Cat Tran shuttle, disabled cart service and emergency ride home programs are provided at no charge to the users of these services. In addition, to help ease the lack of parking on campus, Parking and Transportation Services subsidizes low cost park-n-ride lots and U-passes which allow unlimited rides on all Sun Tran buses for students and employees. These activities cost $2.6 million annually and require a subsidy of $2.5 million per year. The services that pay for these programs include surface lot permits (65%), special events activity (16%), metered spaces (15%), and Citations (4%).