By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations
Starting this week, metered parking spaces are expanding to 11 additional locations on Clemson’s main campus, according to Parking and Transportation Services. The addition of 12 solar powered “pay by space” parking meters will result in a total of 20 state-of-the-art meters, installed within the past year. The new meters will regulate 279 visitor parking spots at 16 different locations. While some of these spaces will also be available to parking permit holders, all of them will be available to visitors, and 97 spaces will be designated as “visitor-only” parking spots. Visitors will also no longer need a visitor permit to park in metered spaces.
“The expansion of our metered spaces means that visitors who were using visitor permits to park in employee spaces can now park in visitor-designated metered spaces without a permit. This frees up employee spaces,” said Dan Hofmann, director of parking and transportation services. “That’s a win-win for campus employees and visitors.”
As part of the expansion, a number of employee spots will be relocated to create more accessible visitor parking areas. For example, 12 employee spots in the Sikes parking lot will be relocated to the existing visitor and timed meter spaces on nearby Calhoun Street, creating a dedicated visitor parking-only area at Sikes.
“No employee spaces will be lost. In fact, we are actually freeing up employee spaces across campus for our paying permit holders,” explained Hofmann. “We have been converting our existing inventory of visitor, metered and timed spaces for better efficiency.”
Sharing the cost keeps costs low
While efficiently managing the parking space inventory, Hofmann also wants to ensure that the cost of parking is equitably distributed. “Sharing the cost of parking among employees, students and visitors, helps us to keep our permit fees low.”
View the meter expansion plan, detailed parking maps by location and the implementation dates at http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-services/parking/meter/index.html. This schedule is weather permitting.
Parker App for phones continues to expand
Also expanding is the number of metered-space locations connected to the Parker app. The app now connects to metered spaces in five locations, including:
- Parking Services Lot
- Hendrix Lot
- Sikes Hall Lot
- Clemson House Lot
- Heisman Street Lot (opposite Fike Recreation Center)
Expansion is currently in progress to expand the parking space sensor technology to the remaining metered spaces on campus. Clemson’s main campus has a total of 279 metered spaces.
Available for both iPhone and Android users, the Parker app provides real time information on availability of open parking spaces and offers drivers “turn-by-turn” directions to locate those spots. For safety, these directions are available with voice guidance. The app also shares profile information about each lot including the regulations, parking space types, pricing and payment options.
