5 Tips to Avoid Parking Tickets in ‘Cuse

photo courtesy of pexels / kaboompics

Spring is here, which means it rains every damn day. And nothing is worse than having to walk in it – except when you decide to drive and end up getting ticketed because you parked illegally. Parking tickets are annoying and expensive — and yet tough to avoid on a campus with seemingly limited parking options — so here are five tips to skrrt around them.

1.     Know the “After 4:30” Rule

On campus, there are blue lots and orange lots, which are shown on the parking services map. Blue lots aren’t particularly helpful, because you need the corresponding pass at all times. But from 4:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. and on the weekends, anyone with any SU parking pass can park in an orange lot. The only thing to watch out for is game days at the Dome when lots are blocked off for spectators. Find the closest orange lot to your evening class, and take full advantage of this rule.

2.     Download the Flowbird App

When street parking in the campus area or downtown, you’ll usually be stuck with two-hour metered parking. Luckily, it’s not very expensive. But sometimes you’ll get unlucky, and the meter will be broken. The city parking enforcement, however, will not give a shit that the meter won’t print your receipt and will give you a $40 ticket anyways. Avoid this by paying electronically for your parking on the Flowbird app, which works for all the meters in Syracuse.

3.     Beware the Odds and Evens

Much of the non-metered street parking in the campus area is subject to the eternally confusing odds and evens. This means that from 6 p.m. on odd days to 6 p.m. on even days, you have to park on one side of the street, and from 6 p.m. even days to 6 p.m. odd days, you have to park on the other side. If that sentence made no sense to you, it’s okay. After a few times, it will just click. Until then, park on whichever side has more cars and say a prayer to the parking gods that you didn’t screw it up.

4.     Take Advantage of Daily Rates

There are a few garages around campus that you can park in without an SU pass, according to Joseph Carfi, Director of Parking and Transit Services. The Comstock Ave., Irving Ave., and University Ave. garages all offer hourly and daily rates, Carfi said. The prices can get steep, but it’ll do in a pinch.

5.     Always Try to Contest Your Ticket

If you do find yourself ticketed, try to fight it. When I was mailing back my most recent parking ticket (I was sabotaged by a broken meter), the lady at the post office told me that if you send a letter, the city will usually reduce the fine. It’s obviously not a guarantee, but it’s worth a shot!

So on the next rainy day when you don’t want to walk through puddles, take a drive and follow these tips — trust me, your bank account will thank you.