UF students should expect to fork over more money next semester when it comes to parking.
In the fall, a yearlong motorcycle or scooter decal will cost $48 more, and a yearlong student automobile decal will cost $10 more.
This school year, a motorcycle or scooter decal cost $96 for a year and $48 for a semester. In fall, it will cost $144 for a year and $72 for a semester.
This year, a student automobile decal cost $134 for a year and $67 for a semester. It will cost $144 for a year and $72 for a semester.
Scott Fox, director of UF Transportation and Parking Services, said motorcycle and scooter decal prices will be more expensive because his department discovered about 80 percent of riders would take a bus if they didn’t drive a scooter or motorcycle.
The original idea behind keeping those decals cheap, he said, was to encourage the use of more fuel-efficient transportation. Fox said the department does not want to discourage the use of the bus system.
He said student car decals will be more expensive because his department, which doesn’t receive university or state funding, needs to make more money so it can pay its bills.
Jaclyn Schwarz, a telecommunications sophomore at UF, said paying more for her scooter decal is frustrating.
“It really picks into my savings,” she said.
Lawrence Granger, a computer engineering junior at UF, said he won’t be able to afford a scooter decal in the fall.
“I understand that there’s a money crunch,” he said. “but you’re trying to crunch money out of the poorest population in Gainesville.”
