Some University of Maryland students are frustrated with game day parking requirements, which they say they must deal with on top of paying hundreds of dollars for parking passes.

On football game days, students who park in Lot 3 and Lot 11 have to relocate their cars by a specific time before games, according to the university’s Department of Transportation Services.

Junior Wesley Bednarczyk said he was studying most of the day on Nov. 21, the day before Maryland football’s game against Michigan, and it slipped his mind to move his car. The email reminder about relocating went to his spam folder, the government and politics major said.

After the game, Bednarczyk said one of his acquaintances was having an emergency, and he was going to take him to the hospital. But when they got to where Bednarczyk was parked in Lot 3, his car was gone.

“I started freaking out, thinking that something happened to it, like someone somehow stole it,” Bednarczyk said.

His friend was able to get where he needed to go, but Bednarczyk said it took him more than three hours to find his car because this university’s police department initially gave him the wrong location to his towed vehicle.

DOTS provides information on its website about where to find towed vehicles based on assigned lots.

Bednarczyk added that he has to pay more than $700 for an annual parking pass, a price he said is a lot for anyone, especially a college student.

“When you pay that much for a parking spot, I shouldn’t have to worry about doing anything with my car,” Bednarczyk said. “There should be a safe space for me to put my vehicle.”

Bednarczyk said he had to pay $180 for the relocation, a price he called “unacceptable” considering he didn’t see the email reminder. He said this is a minimal way of contacting someone before moving their car, and suggested text alerts and phone calls the night before as a reminder.

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University president Darryll Pines told The Diamondback that it’s unfortunate that communication about relocating cars at times doesn’t get out broadly enough, and that the university should not have been towing cars.

“I apologize on behalf of the university to our students and our staff and faculty if they were subjected to this kind of towing,” Pines said. “It shouldn’t really happen if you’re doing a better job of communication.”

In a statement to The Diamondback, DOTS wrote that the department provides clear communication for anyone asked to relocate their cars, including an email outlining expectations for football game parking at the beginning of the semester. Other communication includes email reminders on Tuesdays and Fridays before each game, tow notice signs and updates on the DOTS website and social media.

Junior journalism major Rhiannon Evans said she pays more than $700 a year to park in Mowatt Lane Garage, which doesn’t require relocation, but is open for all others trying to relocate. Evans said she tries not to go anywhere with her car during game days.

“I’m very lucky and happy that I don’t have to move my car, but it makes it very difficult on game days,” Evans said. “Since there’s a higher influx of cars in the parking garage, I feel like I’m kind of trapped.”

Evans added that with the amount she pays to park on campus, she shouldn’t have to worry about not being able to find a parking spot if she has to drive somewhere on a game day.

Sophomore Isabella Raimondo, a commuter student, said that if she wants to attend a football game, she has to get to campus at least two hours early to find a parking spot. Commuter student parking registrations are not valid on football game days.

Raimondo, who is enrolled in the letters and sciences college, said that moving her car to accommodate basketball games last semester was annoying. She parked in the Terrapin Trail Garage, which she said is out of the way of her classes.

She said that students get told when to relocate their cars and that there are no exceptions for class times in most cases. She said she had to move her car at a specific time or it would get towed.

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Raimondo had to leave class early to move her car, which said was frustratingbecause the garage was a long walk away. She added that DOTS and this university could open up more spaces for students to park on game days.

“I think they could open up the different areas, but I feel like they care a lot about money,” Raimondo said. “They sell as much parking as they can here, so they restrict what students can do.”

In the 2022-2023 academic year, DOTS issued more than 43,200 parking citations, more than half of which resulted in an $85 fine, The Diamondback previously reported.

The statement from DOTS said that before 2022, cars had to be relocated for every conference basketball game, but the department reduced that number to just three home basketball games.

“DOTS is always looking for ways to refine operations to reduce the impact on students,” the statement read.