At the beginning of each semester at Sacramento State, students, staff and faculty members groan with the thought of fighting other vehicles for a parking space.

Parking this semester has not been easier on some people, especially with the loss of several hundred parking spaces for the construction of Parking Structure III, located northwest of the football stadium.

Most students and faculty received an e-mail from the university prior to the beginning of this semester explaining the additional parking lot on Ramona Avenue, to help alleviate the parking problems. A shuttle “continually circles between the university and Ramona Avenue, with a wait time of about 20 minutes,” said Nancy Fox, the manager of Transportation and Parking Services.

At the beginning of the semester, about 150 vehicles were using the parking lot a day. Now about 20 to 30 vehicles can be found in the parking lot on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Since one car was using the lot on Fridays in the past month, the Ramona Avenue parking lot will only be operating Monday through Thursday, starting the week of Nov. 7.

As the semester progresses and more parking is available on campus, fewer people are in need of the off-campus parking lot. “For the past few weeks, parking has been readily available on campus, even at peak parking times, Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” Fox stated in an e-mail.

Fox said there are 1,600 parking spaces available for students after 4:30 p.m. Students can also park in most faculty parking spaces after 4:30 p.m. and in student carpool spots after 11:30 a.m.

UTAPS and the University police enforce parking regulations every day, looking for serious parking violators. However, they do give students leniency on 3A.1 “No Valid Permit in View” parking citations only. Twice in a 12-month period, students can appeal to the CSUS Parking Citation Appeals Office, either by mail or on-line; and if the students can prove that they have a current parking permit, they will have a waiver on the ticket.

UTAPS has also been encouraging more students and faculty to try alternative modes of transportation to get to Sac State. “We all choose to make a choice of how to get to campus,” Fox said.

Fox said that more students are taking advantage of free use of the light rail, especially with the recent system being extended to Folsom. Students could walk the one-third mile distance from the 65th Street station to the campus.

“AlterNet Rides is continually growing, particularly with the price of gas growing and the parking conditions,” Fox said. AlterNet Rides is a carpooling service that can be found on the UTAPS Web site that matches people by their home cities. According to the Web site, there are currently 35 rides from Vallejo to Shingle Springs.

The Hornet Shuttle also provides free transportation for students, with a 40-minute waiting period. The Shuttle’s routes include Campus/La Riviera Drive, Morse/Fulton Avenue and Howe/Arden Fair.

“On average, we get 10 people per day,” said George Renteria, the driver for the Ramona Avenue shuttle. “Students don’t have to worry about parking.”

“The shuttle helps a lot and it’s convenient,” said Jessica Lockhart, a senior biology major. “The parking is so frustrating. I’d rather wait the few extra minutes for the shuttle.”

The use of the Hornet Express and Regional Transit buses has also increased, Fox said. UTAPS has observed that more people are waiting for the buses than in past semesters.

Fox said more people have also been walking or riding their bicycles to campus than in previous semesters.

If you have any questions regarding parking conditions please feel free to visit the UTAPS Web site at www.csus.edu/utaps.

Jamie Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]