Eastern Michigan University’s guest/pay lots will have a new and more convenient feature called Pay-In-Lane machines starting Oct. 10.
The Pay-In-Lane will allow the driver to pay the toll with cash or a credit or debit card for any paid parking lot on campus.
An LCD window on the machine will display the amount owed for parking and the gate will be lifted once the payment is made. Guests must have the payment ticket or a department validation ticket to exit the lots.
There are five pay lots: the Student Center Lot, the Bowen Lot, the McKenny Lot, the Pease Lot, and the Alexander Lot. All of these lots are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week and anyone is able to park in them.
Parking in the guest lots is free for the first 30 minutes. After that, the fee is $1 per hour and the maximum fee per day is $8. Parking in the Student Center Lot on the weekends will be free.
The Parking Department used to be part of the Department of Public Safety but is now under the control of Student Business Services, which is the office that determines how much to charge in the pay lots and which lots will be free on weekends.
If a group is planning an event on campus, the organization can pay the visitor’s parking fee by purchasing a validation ticket. If there is a major event going on, the group can contact the Parking Department and request a pay lot be partially or completely reserved for them.
Dionne Hammes, the Parking Director at EMU, has been working for various parking departments for 18 years. She said the Pay-In-Lane system has been successful in many cities and airports.
The previous system for the pay lots was very outdated and the technology was starting to fail, and the “booths were unsafe from an engineering standpoint,” Hammes said.
People that had jobs standing in the booths were offered jobs as citation writers and some now work for SEEUS.
To help get the Pay-In-Lane system up and running, some parking attendants will still be standing out in the lots to explain the new system and help things run smoothly.
Sidney Sobecki, a senior majoring in special education, said having the debit and credit options for paying parking fees is a good idea but has a strong opinion against charging for parking.
“I already pay 200 dollars a year to park,” Sobecki said. “My weekends should be free along with the people that come up to visit.”
Sobecki said the new parking system would be good for commuters that don’t have a parking pass but it should not have changed from the way it was before.
Joseph Hackney, a freshman with an undeclared major, drives to campus five days a week for classes and various activities and usually parks in the commuter lot.
He has never parked in the pay lots, but likes the new system of being able to pay with a credit or debit card in case there is a time he has to use a pay lot.
“I feel that being able to use credit or debit cards is a great idea for those who use pay lots,” Hackney said. “I know that I carry my cards on me at all times and not so much money because if something happens or my wallet gets stolen, I’m out quite a bit of money.”
A big disadvantage, and probably the only one, Hammes said, is that the lots will take a long time to empty people out during a big event because of the time it takes to use the Pay-In-Lanes payment machines.
When large events will take place on campus, the Parking Department will work with event planners to fix that problem. Parking attendants will be positioned near the gates to help people leave faster.
Hackney said free parking on weekends in the Student Center lot is a good idea because the other lots are charging all the time.
Sobecki, who has friends visit her on campus often, also said that free parking in the Student Center lot on the weekends is a great thing.
“It’s always been that way,” she said. “People should be able to park for free on campus. If the Student Center is the only free place to park, things will get crowded and I can assume that people will get angry at the lack of space. I honestly believe the system they had before was fine.”
Hackney disliked the old parking system because the rules were not enforced very often.
Departments wanting to get parking reserved for an event have to fill out a form, which can be found on the Parking Department’s website. The completed forms can be turned in to the Parking Department.
Questions can be answered by calling the Parking Department at 734-487-3450 or emu_parking@emich.edu
