Transit and Parking Update

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As the U of A prepares for the 2021-22 school year, you will want to note the latest reminders and updates from Transit and Parking:

• As many new students and their parents completed the orientation process, Transit and Parking provided a bulleted list of everything that a newcomer should know about getting around on campus. It's also a concise review for those already familiar with campus.

• Cost adjustments for parking permits and for parking citations were approved at the end of May, and you may see them online.

• The Transit, Parking, and Traffic Committee also approved a change that would have an impact on the most egregious instances of motorists having multiple parking citations. Specifically, all violation charges double after the third citation for the same offense in a fiscal year.

• Transit and Parking is on schedule to fully implement license plate recognition (LPR) technology by August 1. The LPR system works by issuing virtual parking permits, or e-permits, rather than issuing decals for various parking permits. The main change for each driver on campus is that there will be a requirement to park so that the license plate faces the drive lane.

• With LPR, drivers wishing to back in or pull through a parking space may choose to purchase an identification plate for the front of the vehicle for $11. This does not, however, make it possible to back in to angled parking, as this has never been allowed with angled spaces on campus.

• New virtual parking permits for the coming school year will be available for faculty and staff to purchase beginning on July 19, and for students on August 1. The transaction may be made online at myparkingaccount.uark.edu.  All new virtual parking permits go into effect as soon as they are purchased, but not before August 1. Parking permit holders will be reminded of these details via email.

• Faculty and staff members who still have the 2020-21 parking permit decal should use it throughout July, until the virtual parking permit goes into effect on the first day of August (those parking decals have a July 31 expiration date).

• Individuals who will be on campus this summer before the August 1 date but do not have a current parking permit may purchase a permit that is good throughout the month of July. Those who only need to make brief periodic trips to campus may choose to use metered parking.

• When new student LPR parking permits are in place, they are valid for the following dates: resident reserved (Aug. 1 through May 31), student garage permits (Aug. 1 through May 31), and general student permits (Aug. 1 through July 31). Reserved permits and faculty and staff permits are for Aug. 1 through July 31.

• With LPR, you should not register your car or truck on more than one e-permit. For example, within one family, if both spouses work on campus and both have an individual e-permit, you cannot put both vehicles on both permits. Within the LPR system, if you did that and then brought both automobiles to campus it would show up as a violation when the license plates are scanned. To put it another way, with LPR you can register more than one vehicle on your e-permit (as many as two for a student permit or four for a faculty or staff permit) but those vehicles should only be registered on that one particular permit, and only one can be brought to campus at a time.

• With LPR, if you are temporarily driving an automobile rental, you would need to put the rental license plate number into your account, but you will want to be sure to remove that vehicle from your account once you are done with the rental. To do this, send an email to parknet@uark.edu. This will prevent you being issued a citation if someone else rents the same vehicle and brings it to campus.

• While mask requirements are being lifted in Arkansas and on campus, federal guidelines still require the wearing of face coverings on Razorback Transit buses and at Union Station through Sept. 13.

• As always, you may see the Transit and Parking website for updated information.