|
EMILY REID/Arizona Daily Wildcat
|
Lynn Berkowitz, curator at the Education-Art Museum, pays pre-business junior T.J. Surbella Friday afternoon for parking as she leaves the Park Avenue Garage. To avoid long traffic lines, Parking and Transportation Services is considering making the cashier stations walk-up rather than drive-up.
|
|
By James Kelley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday Jan. 30, 2002
New permits and changes to the entrances and exits are on the agenda
Parking and Transportation Services is working to make lines of traffic a thing of the past in the Park Avenue Garage by adding new technology and relocating the cashier stations.
PTS will install Radio Frequency Identification Devices this summer to allow permit holders easier access to Park Avenue Garage, 1140 N. Park Ave.
The RFIDs consist of tags mounted on a vehicles windshield, which allow drivers to enter and exit without having to swipe their permits.
PTS is also looking to make all the entrances and exits in the Park Avenue Garage available for visitors and replacing the exit cashier with a central cashier like in other campus garages.
Currently, drivers pay for parking from their cars as they leave the garage, while other garages require visitors to pay before returning to their cars.
"We want to make the garage more efficient," said Patrick J. Kass, director of PTS. "It keeps the lines from backing up like at an airport." Mara Rubin, a sociology sophomore, said she doesn't like having to swipe her permit through the machine. The installation of the new system will make entering and exiting the garage easier and faster, she said.
PTS will also install the RFIDs in the Cherry Avenue Garage, 1641 E. Enke St. Last summer, PTS installed the RFIDs in the Main Gate Garage, 815 E. Second St.; Tyndall Avenue Garage; 880 E. Tyndall Ave. and Second Street Garage, 1340 E. Second St.
Kass said the positive reaction encouraged PTS to look into installing RFIDs in the Park Avenue Garage and Cherry Avenue Garage.
"The radios were greatly received," Kass said. "Swiping is a simple thing but not having to is even easier. Since they don't have to roll down windows, they feel it's safer, and they don't get wet when it is raining," he said. PTS hopes to make the old permits obsolete.
In the garages already using the devices, only disabled permits have to be swiped. The new technology of the RFIDs also allows PTS to save material, as the devices last longer.
"Another good thing is that they last three to four years. With the permits we had to replace them every year," Kass said.
