Andrew Turner Reporter

The Parking and Traffic Committee lowered the parking fines on campus and raised the late fees, which will start fall 2011.

Parking ticket fines at SDSU will be $15 lower this fall.

Tickets for parking in the wrong lot or not having a decal up will be reduced to $35, according to Anthony Sutton, junior political science and history major and chair of the Parking and Traffic Committee. “This year the same tickets are $50 and two years ago they were $100.”

The Parking and Traffic Committee met Feb. 11, and Sutton said most people would like to see the ticket prices at $10. However, one issue that must be considered is if that price is a deterrent. The committee wanted to find a medium where the fine is fair but still encourages people to park legally.

The committee also decided to increase late fees from $3 to $10. The new prices will not take effect until next school year for enforcement purposes.

Sutton said getting a ticket will be a little less of a burden, and increasing the late fee penalizes those who do not pay within the 96 hours from when the ticket was issued.

Rohit Anand, a senior software engineering major, said lowering the prices is good but not with the increase in late fees.

“If you get the ticket over the weekend or you have to get the money to pay, you are going to be late and being really close to the $50 anyway,” Anand said.

Not all members of the committee fully supported the change.

“Lowering the fee does not make sense,” said Craig Welbon, a career service employee representative on the committee. “I believe lowering the prices will increase violations, which would then increase the number of people we need out there to write the tickets.”

Welbon would like to see the price to buy parking decals decrease and the fines for parking illegally to increase.

“That pushes for more proper parking,” he said. “You’re rewarding the people who follow the rules and punishing those who break them.”

A student resident parking decal costs $86 for one academic year and a commuter decal costs $120.

#1.2005508:3747771715.jpeg:PArking Fines To Decrase::Collegian Photo