Memo of Transmittal

To: Marlene Cramer, Associate Director of the

University Police-Parking Services
From: David Garcia
Date: 27 September 2016
Subject: Proposal to Reduce On-Campus
Parking Congestion
Attached is the recommendation report discussing possible solutions to
the problem of parking on-campus. The purpose of this report is to
analyze the merits of two solutions to improve parking situation.

Recommendations
The two possible solutions that were examined throughout this report
are:
Create a new ridesharing program on campus, where it is
required to fill out the application, but not be a part of the
carpool.
Re-appoint some of the resident parking for the non-residents,
and have more zip-cars available for use by the residents.

Methods
To ensure that the recommendation will be a sensible and well thought
out solution, multiple sources and research methods were used. My
primary sources are:
Personal observations
Interview with Marlene Cramer
In-person survey of Cal Poly students
My secondary sources are:
Online reports of Cal Polys student admission
Journal entry from the Parking Professional

Findings

All of the information for this recommendation found through my

research will be reported in the Results section. It will then be
analyzed in my Conclusion section.

Final Recommendation

My recommended solution is to create a new ridesharing program on

campus that will decrease the number of single rider cars on campus.

Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Please contact me if
you have any questions regarding this report.

Prepared for Marlene Cramer

University Police Department

Proposal to Reduce On-Campus

Parking Congestion

Prepared by David Garcia

Submitted November 27, 2016

Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................1
Purpose..............................................................1
Context...............................................................1
Organization.......................................................1

Methods....................................................2-3
Primary...............................................................2
Secondary...........................................................2-3

Results......................................................3-4
Primary...............................................................3-4
Secondary...........................................................4

Conclusions...............................................4-5
Recommendations.....................................6
References................................................7
Figures Cited.............................................7
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Demographic of students...................................... 4
Figure 2: Students who think parking is a problem...................4

Introduction
Purpose

On any given day of school, students from all colleges of Cal Poly can
be seen commuting to school. It is these same students who are
perpetually in shock when they arrive to finding that there parking
permit is useless without a parking spot. Of the students that I
surveyed, 68% said that they felt that parking on campus was a
serious problem[1].
This report was written to determine a feasible solution for the issue of
parking at Cal Poly. In order to do this, my client will be Marlene
Cramer, who is the Associate Director of the University Police-Parking
Services. Since she helps manage the parking situation at Cal Poly, she
would be the best person to put these solutions into action.

Context

There are currently nine parking lots available to non-resident students

who purchased a parking permit to park on campus without using a
meter. Of these nine parking lots, six are on the north side of campus,
and one is more than half a kilometer from the nearest building on the
main campus. There are other places to park inside of campus:
however, they are meter controlled and have a maximum time limit of
two hours. The street surrounding the outside of the south side of
campus also has a two-hour time limit, and any cars that exceed it can
face a fine of over $30.
The largest problem facing the student parking is the students
themselves. Each year the number of non-resident students who
attend Cal Poly steadily increases. From Fall 2010 to Fall 2014 the
number of non-resident students has risen by nearly 1600 students[2].
With that increase, more and more students are bringing their cars into
an already congested parking lot. If this trend continues, there will be
even less available resources for parking, and soon it will be nearly
impossible for any student who doesnt come to class hours in advance
to find parking.

Organization

This report will continue from this introduction into a methods section
that will detail my methods of obtaining information for this report.
After that, it will lead into a discussion on the results of these methods,
followed by a comparison of my two solutions, and a final
recommendation of the two. The two recommendations that I chose
were to

Create a new ridesharing program on campus, where it is

required to fill out the application, but not be a part of the
carpool. This will match the students who live near each other
will possible car pool options to reduce the number of cars
brought on campus.
Re-appoint some of the resident parking for the non-residents,
and have more zip-cars available for use by the residents.

Methods
To determine how extensive this problem is, multiple methods of data
collection were used. Observations, interviews with professionals,
surveys, and data collected by the school were all considered when
obtaining this information.

Primary Methods
Interview
I attempted to contact someone who was in charge of the parking
program at Cal Poly. I was put in touch with Marlene Cramer, whom I
was able to arrange an interview with.
Marlene Cramer, CAPP
Associate Director of the University Police-Parking Services

Observation
Since this was my first year attending Cal Poly, I was able to get an
almost outside view on how the parking lots worked.

Survey
117 Cal Poly students answered the following questions, 54 were
resident students and 63 were non-resident students.
The non-resident students were asked the following questions.

What year are you?

Do you park on campus?
What time do you get to school?
Have you ever had any trouble finding parking on campus?
Would you carpool if there was someone to carpool with in your
area?

The resident students were asked the following questions:

What year are you?

Do you park on campus?
Have you had any problems with parking on campus?
Would your rather use a Zip-car to get around when you need it
than purchase a parking permit?

The survey was kept short to motivate the students to give me as

many responses as possible. There were still enough questions to allow
me to obtain all of the necessary information I needed.

Secondary Methods
Online reports
I will take the information found in the annual enrollment planning
section of Cal Polys website from 2010-2015

Journal
I found the following article from the Parking Professional published in
May 2016:
Parking Analytics: an Industry Snapshot by T2 Pathfinder

Results
The information that I had gathered using all of my different methods
shed light on how the students felt they were affected by the parking
at Cal Poly.

Primary Methods
Interview
I asked Marlene Cramer the following questions and was given these
responses:
1. Have you been interviewed for this before? If so, why?
Yes, she had been interviewed multiple times for this specific
topic over the years.
2. What times do you think the parking lots are most full?
According to her research, the parking lots are most full during
10am and 2pm.
3. Do you think parking is a problem on campus? Why or why not?
The real problem is that there are a lot of different demands on
parking resources. As the school grows, its taxes the parking
even more.
4. Have people complained to you about the parking before?
Yes they have.
5. Have any solutions been put into place before?
Yes there is an existing optional rideshare program that is
available to students
6. Do you think the new student housing being built will add to the
parking problem?
Yes, it has taken nearly 1,500 parking spaces that were available
to the students.

7. What are some solutions that you can think of?

More people carpooling would help reduce the number of single
riders taking up entire parking spaces.
Based on these questions, it became apparent that many people have
already put a lot of time and effort into creating solutions for the
parking problem at Cal Poly. Not only that, but most of the simple
solutions that would come to mind when thinking of expanding parking
are not feasible [3].

Observation
Whenever I would walk to my car at the beginning of the year to eat
my lunch I would constantly see students in their cars circling the
parking lot like vultures trying to find a spot. More often than not they
would start following me while I was walking and get visibly angry
when I wouldnt leave my spot. Not only that, but they would also drive
aggressively around the parking lot going well over the speed limit to
try to cover as much ground as possible[4].

Survey
Of the 117 students that were surveyed, 54 were resident students and
63 were non-resident students. Of the 54 resident students that were
surveyed, 35 stated that they would use a zip-car instead of their own
cars if they absolutely had to and of the 63 non-residents, 21 said that
they would carpool with someone in their area if they had a chance.
And out of all the 117 students, 80 said that they felt that parking on
campus was a problem[1].

Students Surveyed

46%

54%

Non-Residents
Residents

Figure 2: Students
parking is a problem[1]

who

feel

Students who think Parking is a Problem

32%

Figure
1:
students[1]

Demographic

of

68%

Agree

Disagree

Secondary Methods
Online Reports
According to the target reports for Cal Polys student population, the
total student population, as well as the non-resident population, has
been on a steady rise since 2010. In 2010 the total population was only
18,009, with 968 being non-residents. By 2014, it had grown to 19,940
total students and 2,308 non-residents[2].

Journal
This journal was featured in the Parking Professional and it shows a
breakdown of all the available parking spaces on average for multiple
types of organizations. It showed that even though on average schools
make up nearly 17% of all parking spaces, they only make about 6% of
all the revenue generated by parking. This means that on average,
each parking spot at the university should cost $556[5].

Conclusion
Parking on campus is rapidly becoming more and more of a problem
for the entire student population. Although we are charged $181 less
than the national average per parking space annually[5], we still must
find a solution for the availability of those spaces. We need direct
action to solve this problem, and implementing one of the solutions
that I have proposed can do just that.
My first solution is to create a Cal Poly specific ridesharing program,
where students are matched up with other students in their area as
potential carpooling partners. It would be mandatory to fill out the
forms, but the students can choose whether or not they would want to
actually participate in the carpool program. By doing this, it would cut
down on the single riders in the parking lots, removing more cars and
freeing more spaces. There is already an existing ride-sharing program,
however it is not as fully utilized as it could be. Nearly a third of the
students surveyed thought they would rideshare if given the
chance[1], but the actual number of students who will follow through
may not be enough to make an impact.
My second solution would be to decrease the number of resident
parking permits available to the resident students while increasing the
number of Zip-cars. Students can easily get to downtown SLO and
beyond, either by bus, bike, or simply walking. If there was a need to
drive farther than they could go on a bus, then they could easily use a
Zip-car to get where they need to go. It is unclear how many students
would be ok with having their limited parking spaces further reduced,

and whether or not anyone who parks there will still be able to get to
class on time.
My first solution is the more feasible of the two, since it would require
no change in parking policy or number of permits sold, and it would
also not target any one part of the student body, since everyone would
get the chance to participate in the program.

Recommendations
Based on my research and observations, I recommend that the Parking
Services create a new ridesharing program exclusively for Cal Poly. The
decrease in number of single riders will open up the parking lots and
reduce the overcrowding of students. The next step to implement this
would be to create the program that the students will use and have it
ready to launch by the next school year.

References
[1] D. Garcia On-Campus Student Parking at Cal Poly, Survey. 15 Nov
2016
[2] (2016).Targets - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis
Obispo[online].
Available:
http://www.ir.calpoly.edu/content/publications_reports/targets/ind
exWeb. [Accessed:13-Nov-2016].
[3] M. Cramer, Assistant Director Business Services, University Police
Department. Interview. San Luis Obispo, CA. 11 Nov 2016.
[4] D. Garcia, On-Campus Student Parking at Cal Poly, Observation.
26 Sep 2016
[5]

(May 2016).Parking.org 'Parking Analytics: An Industry

Snapshot[online].
Available:
http://www.parking.org/2016/06/06/parking-analytics-industrysnapshot-may-2016/ [Accessed: 13- Nov-2016]

Figures Cited
[1] Figure 1: Demographic of students, Survey. 15 November 2016.
[1] Figure 2: Students who feel parking is a problem Survey. 15
November 2016.