Parking revenue at $2.5 million

Today, more than 250 students, faculty and visitors to campus will likely find a yellow ticket waiting for them underneath their windshield wiper.\nThey will be asked to pay anywhere from $20 to $200, contributing to a yearly revenue of $2.5 million in parking violations, said director of parking operations Doug Porter. The city of Indianapolis brings in $3 million from parking tickets each year, said Indianapolis Corporation Counsel Jeff Cox. \nBecause IU collects nearly as much revenue as Indianapolis -- a city 10 times larger than Bloomington -- many wonder where the money is going and how it is being used.\n"We tell people that the rates are driven by the expenses," Porter said. "It is everything from office supplies to parking garages."\nParking Operations, which oversees all aspects of University parking, is a self-supporting service that receives no funding from IU, according to the Parking Operations Web site. Money from fines, parking passes, garage fees and meters constitutes Parking Operations' entire funding. \nBut some believe the amount of money being generated is not equal to the improvement they see in campus parking.\n"Are they content taking so much of the students' money, or trying to fix the problem?" sophomore Nate Peterman said. "If they are making close to as much money as Indy, and their revenues are still growing, why is nothing being fixed?"\nBut Porter said plans are under way calling for large portions of Parking Operation's budget. A $5.5 million parking garage is being built at 11th Street and Fee Lane, designed to increase access to the business school. A sealant will be applied to the Atwater Garage for $1 million, and the west side of the stadium lot will be repaved for about $750,000, Porter said.\nPorter said that despite an increased demand for more parking lots and garages, space to expand is limited to moving upward, not outward. The University was founded with the preservation of natural resources in mind, and officials are reluctant to sacrifice the natural beauty of the campus for increased parking. \n"This campus is built on aesthetics," Porter said. "Most buildings are expendable. Most green space is off limits. They won't let me pave Dunn Meadow."\nThe campus was originally built in a small, consolidated manner, when horseback was the most common mode of transportation. The same infrastructure that was built in the early 1800s is still being used today, a time when 18,600 people own an IU parking permit, Porter said.\nWith many of them looking for spots on campus daily, and with 70,000 tickets given out yearly, Porter said, congestion and costs are not likely to decrease any time soon.\nThe limited space for cars on campus has led some to propose alternate methods of transportation, such as the addition of bike paths or added trails, Porter said. These would likely encourage students living closer to campus to choose the convenience of riding directly to their class.\n"So much revenue is generated from parking, both in parking tickets and parking passes," graduate student Chad Washburn said. "Yet there are already so many cars on campus. So instead of using that money for more parking garages and adding to the parking and traffic problems, money should be used for bike paths and pedestrian walkways."\nPorter said parking is available, just not always where people want it to be.