By Taylor Johnson and Ashley Rowles
With the continuous inflation of parking permit prices on campus, students always seem to find themselves caught in a tight situation every semester when the time to buy a parking permit rolls around.
Many also wonder how the university’s prices for permits compare to other nearby universities.
“I feel that parking should be included in our tuition,” said Ammar Alnajjar, a third-year psychology student.
Some may still recall when a parking permit was only around $134 in fall quarter 2015.
Compared to today’s $231 semester parking permit, there are some universities that have more cost-efficient prices for their permits.
Cal State San Bernardino charges $114 per quarter, which is $120 less per year than Cal Poly Pomona.
Cal State Long Beach is in the top 10 schools with the cheapest permits, with a price of $140 per semester, or a yearly cost of $280.
CSU Long Beach offers parking permit alternatives such as charging half the price of a regular permit for the first 300 students to purchase a permit, provided those students park in a lot located two miles away from their campus.
Cal State Fullerton’s parking permits run at a very similar price point to CPP’s at $236 per term.
CPP’s parking permits may be expensive, but they are less expensive than Cal State San Marcos’ permit, which costs a whopping $338 per semester.
Samantha Vo, a second-year business student at CPP, said last year, she opted to take a chance on getting a ticket rather than paying for a permit because she thought it would be slightly cheaper.
CPP’s website indicates that the earnings from permits are used strictly for maintaining parking services as well as to help fund the Bronco Express Shuttle service.
Despite spending close to $500 per year on parking, many students find it frustrating that they still are not guaranteed to find an open space.
“It would be one thing if I was able to park close to my class, but instead I sometimes spend an hour looking for parking,” Alnajjar said.
Students who do not have a valid parking permit risk a $48 fine, but if a student loses his or her permit or forges it, the price increases to $230.
The Poly Post reached out to Parking & Transportation Services but the department declined to comment at the time of publication.