General annual and fall quarter parking permits have sold out. However, daily and weekly permits that allow parking in other general parking spaces in the Grand Avenue parking structure, the K1 and H1 lots and “Orange” lots (H12, H14 and H16) are still available, according to an email from university spokesperson Matt Lazier.
The university sold out of general permits last fall quarter because of limited parking spaces. Cal Poly sold the same amount of permits this year starting Aug. 28, but designated the lots differently.
This year, general spaces for campus commuters are divided in several ways. The “Orange” lots are designated exclusively for longer-term quarterly and annual general day permits (until 5 p.m.). These lots have 1,297 spaces. There are 1,485 other general spaces in several other lots.
According to Lazier, the remaining 4,624 spaces are designated for residents, faculty/staff, sponsored guests, motorcycles and other specialty parking including that for state vehicles, disabled, electric vehicle charging and van/car pools.
Resident passes are still available for the R1 lot and Poly Canyon Village structures, but sold out for the R4 lot.To free up parking spaces, incoming freshmen living on campus are not allowed to bring vehicles.
Biology senior Aiysha Mahmood lives in Arroyo Grande and drives to school every day. She bought an annual parking permit for two years but was unable to buy one this year. This year, Mahmood said she plans get to school early to park in a lot that allows daily and weekly general permits.
“It puts me in a tough position because I know those general lots are going to fill up really fast,” Mahmood said. “It definitely sucks especially since I’m actually a commuter and I don’t have the option to take the bus or anything. It just puts me in a really bad position and makes me feel like Cal Poly doesn’t really care. Obviously parking has always been a problem at Cal Poly, but this new system is not beneficial to people.”
According to Parking Services student assistant Karen Lopez, daily and weekly general parking permits can be bought at the Cal Poly visitor’s center on Grand Avenue, the University Police Department kiosk and in the K1 and H1 lots. Daily permits are $5 and weekly permits are $25.
According to Lazier, the university is also adding several hundred bike racks throughout campus, developing a bike share rental program, working with SLO Transit on optimizing routes that serve the Cal Poly community and converting the G2 lot to a short-term lot to allow more students to park there while visiting the nearby Recreation Center.
Cal Poly encourages students and employees to use public transportation and alternative modes of transportation like biking, walking and carpooling to commute to campus.