Transportation Services raises parking rates by 50 cents, warns of future cost increases

Lot C parking for students now costs $5.50 a day

By RACHEL TRAN — campus@theaggie.org

Every year, UC Davis Transportation Services — formerly Transportation and Parking Services, or TAPS — options raising parking rates on campus, and this year was no exception. The daily parking rate is now 50 cents higher in all zones. Employee permits’ monthly rates also increased by five dollars.

Lot C rates are now $5.50 a day and Lot C+ and Lot A rates are now $6.50 a day. M zone rates are $3.75 and visitor rates are now $19.00 a day.

Unlike many other UC campuses, UC Davis does not offer a monthly or quarterly parking permit. That option was last available to Aggies during the COVID-19 pandemic, but led to an issue of overcrowding, according to Transportation Services. As a result, Transportation Services had to stack park — parking vehicles in the lanes of parking lots and garages all across campus.

“We were talking about building a new structure over here and a new parking lot over there,” Transportation Demand Manager Ramon Zavala said in response to the overcrowding issue. “But that goes against all of our sustainability methods. We’re supposed to be reducing the number of vehicles coming to campus. So when the pandemic was going on, we made a pretty big change to the parking permit structure.”

Transportation Services had to hire additional personnel to manage stack parking, which Zavala said led to thousands of dollars of extra parking expenses for no gain in revenue. When the system transitioned into the current daily rates, Zavala said they planned to market the fees in front of people’s faces so that they could see the cost of parking everyday.

“We know that that would make people angry at us because they don’t want to pay that money,” Zavala said. “But we also know that there comes a point where they get sick and tired of paying money.”

During this change, Transportation Services was working to get all students and staff to use the daily parking rates, but different union contracts require that employees maintain a monthly permit option.

Unlike other university departments, Transportation Services is entirely self-funded, namely through parking fees and citation fines. It receives no state money, tuition or student fees. Aside from overseeing the campus' parking facilities, Transportation Services is also responsible for maintenance of roads, sidewalks and pathways on campus.

In addition to the change in parking rates, Lot 25 (located in front of the Activities and Recreation Center, or ARC) is also being restructured to increase pedestrian and biker safety.

“Lot 25 is losing a lot of parking stalls because we fully reengineered it to facilitate much more safe bicycle transportation,” Zavala said. “In front of Peet’s, there is a much larger and more organized circle roundabout."

The intersection of Blue Ridge and La Rue Roads is also having its pedestrian scramble —  an intersection where all vehicles are stopped to allow pedestrians to cross diagonally across the intersection — adjusted to have a direct bike path. Previously, bikers had to travel through the ARC parking lot and through bike racks.

Transportation Services notes that the number of parking stalls and spaces on campus has been consistently decreasing in recent years. In May 2024, the university closed off the top two levels of the Pavilion Parking Structure shortly after a student died by suicide after jumping from the top floor. Last February, two parking lots in the Segundo residence area were closed to make way for new dorm housing. 

The department says that UC Davis community members should expect modest annual rate adjustments every July going forward.

Written by: Rachel Tran — campus@theaggie.org