In the name of sustainability, UF students with motorcycles and scooters will have to pay as much for annual parking decals as students with automobiles this year.
It now costs $144 per year and $72 per semester to buy a decal for a motorcycle or a scooter, compared to $96 per year and $48 per semester for the 2010 school year.
It was the third price increase to motorcycle and scooter decals over the past three years, said Scott Fox, director at UF Transportation and Parking Services.
The department will know in September whether fewer scooter and motorcycle decals were sold this school year compared with last school year.
Such decals were previously cheaper than automobile ones as part of an effort to encourage students to use motorcycles and scooters, which are more sustainable than cars because they have better gas mileage, Fox said.
A few years ago, UF surveyed students who owned motorcycles and scooters.
About 80 percent of students surveyed said if motorcycle and scooter parking weren't so convenient and cheap, they would ride the bus, Fox said.
Because students were driving more on their scooters and motorcycles than they would if they had a car, more gas was being burned than necessary, Fox said.
"It really doesn't make sense to offer students a discount to conduct behavior that is very questionably antisustainable," Fox said.
After the survey, the department set three price increases in place to gradually push the price of scooter and motorcycle decals up to that of automobiles.
"Our intent is not to push students into one mode of transportation or another, but to no longer give students a discount to get off the bus and ride a scooter," Fox said
Scooters are parked in front of Gator Corner Dining Center during the lunchtime rush Wednesday afternoon.
