Finding a parking spot is now as simple as opening the new parking app featuring real time technology. The app shows parking availability in the new G16 garage which has 775 new spots for commuters and 175 for faculty.
“It’s been a good fall. We have this new garage … which is at Volunteer Blvd. and Pat Head Summit and has definitely served a need for this community,” said Moira Bindner, a UT Parking and Transit services spokesperson.
Though at first not well known, G16 is filling up every day and at earlier times.
“It started out a little slow. When we first took our survey of the occupancy in the garages when this one was done, not everyone had discovered it,” Bindner said. “Now a lot of people have discovered it and it’s full just about every single day.”
The new system, that indicates how much space is available within G16, has helped to cut down on circling time within the garage. The real time technology records when a vehicle arrives and leaves in a garage to keep track of the amount of spots available.
The parking app for G16 can be found in the Tennessee app on the second page and automatically refreshes every 30 seconds so students can view the current space availability located on each level. The graphic display uses a simple tricolor system to show the availability on each level of the garage. Red signifies there are no parking spaces available. Yellow means that there are still some spots open, and green means there are plenty of spots still available.
When asked how their experience has been on finding parking, UT commuter students said finding parking is easier in the morning before 10 a.m.
“I think they’ve been doing a fine job really,” James Pritchard, freshman in management, said. “It’s just you have to get here early enough to get a spot.”
While the parking changes have been beneficial for commuter students, residential students are hoping parking gets easier soon.
“It’s a really big struggle for me sometimes, to not only fit my truck in the parking spot, but for me to get out once I’m in it, because people pack into those spots,” said Emma Horn, freshman in animal science.
UT Parking and Transit may change this next year as they look at the parking inventory and decide what the needs of the campus are.
“We adjust our inventory to make this campus be more efficient and effective in meeting the needs of everybody,” Bindner said.
The success of the smart technology may help retrofit current garages. UT administration is looking at quotes on how much it would cost to add the system to garages and how much structural work will have to go into adding it to each garage.
UT Parking and Transit is researching the costs and a timeline for installing the system with T2, the company who installed the smart technology in the G16 garage. T2 was founded in 1994 and focuses on making parking as easy as possible.
Plans are in place for a new parking garage to be built on Lake Ave. Construction for the garage started on Oct. 6.
“There will be a thousand new spaces in that garage — including commuter spaces. That will be open in 2018 and that will also incorporate the real time technology,” Bindner said.
The new garage will also be used as a source of revenue for the Parking and Transit services. Since the garage will be for commuters, during nights and weekends there will be paid parking for those who visit the strip. But it will not be available during the school day.
“Our first priority on this campus is for students, staff and faculty,” Bindner said.
