In its annual report last year, DOTS pledged to eliminate physical parking permits for students and expand outreach and transparency before the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year — initiatives officials now say they have accomplished with more than two months to spare.
But as the Department of Transportation Services looks to set its goals for next year, officials concede there are still several areas the department can improve upon.
With the parking permit program that rolled out in time for the fall semester, DOTS completed an effort that it began studying the year before: using license plate-scanning cameras to see whether vehicles are properly registered for the lot in which they’re parked.
One DOTS employee, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized o speak to the media, said the system still has a few bugs; people who register more than one car on their permits are occasionally ticketed for not being registered. But DOTS Assistant Director Beverly Malone said the new system has worked well overall and helps the department keep more accurate statistics.
“It used to be impossible to keep track of how many people were registered because we were always issuing new permits to people who lost them,” she said. “But [the license plate recognition software] should mean it will be easier to count.”
According to last year’s report, DOTS also wanted to increase its transparency to students and provide more channels for the university community to communicate with officials.
In response, they started a blog and Twitter and Facebook accounts and redesigned the DOTS website in an attempt to make information more available.
To replace the old ShuttleTrac bus tracking system, DOTS also installed NextBus, a phone hotline and online feature that provides real-time information on the location of a bus. Students can now see exactly when a bus will show up and plan accordingly rather than blindly wait at a stop, Malone said, calling the service “one of the best things we did.”
Despite the progress made in the past two semesters, both students and officials say there is still more work to be done.
For instance, planning for some future DOTS projects has been stymied by a lack of coordination among different departments and other state agencies working on them, such as the proposed redesign of Lot HH1 across from Stamp Student Union.
“The problem is it’s still undetermined how that space will be used,” DOTS Director David Allen said, adding that the yet-undecided route for the Purple Line light rail will affect the department’s plans.
Students also agreed that while DOTS overall provides a convenient service, there are aspects they would like to see changed.
“They should be more lenient in regards to parking in front of North Campus dorms,” sophomore finance major Ariel Khizgilov said. “I got a ticket for standing in front of the dorm while I was moving in a fridge.”
Senior community health major Esteban Torres, who drives a new weekend Shuttle-UM route to Beltway Plaza, was concerned that students trying to get from University Courtyards Apartments to the student union find themselves on a route with an hour’s worth of additional stops and noted that weekday rush-hour traffic is very congested on the campus.
“During peak hours, like 4 to 6 p.m., this campus gets horrible,” he said. “But [DOTS is] doing the best they can.”
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