By Rebecca A. Doyle
There’s good news and there’s bad news about finding a place to park your car on the Ann Arbor campus this fall. Patrick Cunningham, director of parking and transportation services, says that there are about 21,600 available spots regulated by Parking Services on campus this fall, and permit distribution last year was very close to that number.
“It should be noted, however, that the distribution of permits by color made blue and gold permit parking much more difficult than the other colors,” Cunningham says. A number of changes have been made to help address that difficulty while the University works at more far-reaching solutions to the Central Campus parking crunch.
The good news is that a number of lots have been renovated and are now open for parking, and that some meters in surface lots have been converted to blue parking. Lots M76, yellow parking between Wall St. and Maiden Lane; NC10 at the School of Music; NC28 at the Space Research Laboratory; M34, Blue lot next to the Observatory Lodge; and lots M65 and M66 next to the North Ingalls Building all have been reopened. New blue and orange lots are available on the west side of Zina Pitcher Place (40 Blue), on the north side of Fuller Road across from the Fuller/Mitchell lot (300 orange) and in an expanded NC51 lot at the corner of Glazier Way and Huron Parkway (85 Orange).
Lots that were metered and now have more Blue parking spaces are near Revelli Hall (SC7), State/Monroe (S5), News & Information Services/Student Activities Building (W13), Zina Pitcher/Ann (M27), Markley Hall (M28) and North Ingalls Building (M64). Ten metered spaces near the Administrative Services Building (SC4) were converted to yellow spaces.
The bad news is that several lots are permanently closed for the construction of the Life Sciences Institute Building. Blue lots N12 and N25, visitor parking in lot N24 and the Palmer Drive entrance to the Fletcher Street Structure are closed. About 50 spaces in lot N12 will be available to staff until mid-October, accessed only by a new driveway on Washtenaw Boulevard.
Green parking has been eliminated, and a paid permit is now required. Free parking, which does not require a permit, has been re-located to the Park-N-Ride lots around the perimeter of the city along Ann Arbor Transit Authority bus routes.
A space redesignation affects 15 lots, some changing from green to yellow and others from yellow to orange. Be sure to check the signs posted at parking lot entrances to ensure your parking tag is permitted before leaving your vehicle.
For more information on parking, visit the Parking and Transportation Services Web site, www.parking.umich.edu.
