Thousands of parking tickets are written on campus and in East Lansing each year. Some people get several, as one alumna decorated her cap with parking tickets last spring.
She received just a few of the more than 100,000 parking violations given out in East Lansing and on campus last year.
In 2015, the city of East Lansing and MSU’s campus recorded 30,246 and 80,732 violations, respectively.
Parking and Code Enforcement, or P.A.C.E., is responsible for parking enforcement in the city. Supervisor Eldon Evans said the most common violations stem from meter violations.
There were 16,638 meter violations downtown in 2015, Evans said.
Other common violations included private property violations, parking in areas requiring a permit and disobeying parking signs.
“Private property violators park on properties (without) the consent of the property owners,” Evans said via email. “Residential parking violators are issued citations in neighborhoods that require a neighborhood permit. Those without permits designed for that certain neighborhood are issued citations.”
MSU police spokesperson Sierra Medrano said via email that common parking violations came from expired meters and parking in reserved areas. She said there were 37,602 expired meter violations and 24,431 reserved area violations in 2015.
Parking ramps had thousands of violations in 2015. The most were at Shaw ramp with 11,679 violations. Other locations with many violations included the Trowbridge ramp with 5,631, the Hannah Administration Building loop with 4,804 and the Grand River Avenue ramp with 4,027.
Evans said though P.A.C.E. is not involved in the resolution process of the citation, sometimes the violation is contested in court.
“In court the officer and the owner of the vehicle explain the circumstances that resulted in the ticket being issued,” he said. “Some vehicle owners pay the fine to the 54B District Court and some contest the citation in court.”
Medrano said enforcement is a concern throughout campus, and said the violations have to be paid or appealed within seven days of the ticket. Both MSU Police and P.A.C.E. tickets can be paid online or in person.
