Along with tuition, room, food and books, many students who choose to have a vehicle on campus must add parking fines to the list of their college expenses. Students receive a large portion of the nearly ten thousand parking violations given out by the Dartmouth Parking and Transportation department each year, said Bill Barr, facilities operations and management director of fiscal and auxiliary services.
The majority of these citations are issued to vehicles parked in lots designated for the 2,000 green decal holders, who include faculty, staff and service employees, Barr said. Green decals allow their holders to park in the main campus lots during business hours. The penalties for unlawfully parking in these lots range from $25 for a car registered with the College to $50 if the car is not registered or is parked in a handicap spot or a fire lane.
Barr said that students should not park in these lots from 2 a.m. to 5 p.m. on business days.
"We say to students, 'Don't bring your car to campus during the business day, because there's no room for you,'" he said. "There is not enough parking in the core of campus to handle all the demand for the people coming to work."
Occasions arise, however, when students feel it is impractical to walk the 0.7 miles from the Green to A-Lot, the College's student parking lot, and choose to violate the parking policy.
Lauren Caracciola '09, said she let a friend borrow her car on move-in day, suspecting that parking enforcement would be more relaxed during this period.
"I got $130 in parking tickets during the first two days of school," she said. "My friend left my car outside of Collis, and when I went to pick it up, I found all the tickets."
Unpaid fines do not increase over time and eventually end up on a student's administrative account, a balance that must be paid before a student is permitted to check-in each term. The College, however, does not have access to license plate records and thus cannot identify the owner of a vehicle not registered with Dartmouth, Barr said.
Amy Spicer, '09 has paid over $100 in parking fees without ever personally violating parking guidelines, she said.
"When I loan people my car they always seem to get tickets," she said. "I have paid $140 dollars between the College and Hanover. Hanover will send letters to the address that your car is registered to -- so horrible."
Repeat offenders who accumulate three or more tickets risk finding a boot on their car's tire or finding that their car has been towed to the College's impound in A-Lot. The fee for towing or to remove a boot is an additional $100. Barr said that towing or booting is an "egregious" practice that is relatively rare and is only used when students repeatedly violate parking procedures.
"We say we can boot or tow on the third offense, but sometimes leeway is given there. It's just hard to manage some people," he said. "There's always a core group of scofflaws you're chasing around."
Jonathan Simpson '08 reported that Dartmouth parking enforcement took extensive measures to pressure him to pay his fines.
"My vehicle was once blocked in by Dartmouth parking enforcement, and I was not allowed to leave my spot until they yelled at me for not paying my tickets," he said.
Barr estimated that approximately 20 to 25 percent of undergraduates have their vehicles at Dartmouth, parking in one of the 350 spots in A-Lot, at a Greek house or elsewhere in the Hanover area. The town of Hanover operates a 289-car parking facility on 7 Lebanon Street, with half the spots available to rent for long-term use.
