A new license plate reader system will go live in the parking garage on Sunset Ave. on Nov. 11. This parking system will eliminate physical parking validation cards and allow guests a timely period to pay for parking. The readers will automatically recognize cars registered with Butler parking passes, allowing easier flow of traffic in and out of the garage.
The new system is run through LAZ Parking, through which parking permits are now sold, and payment is specifically done by scanning QR codes in the garage. For those who do not have access to a cell phone, there is a phone number and website on the sign that guests can use to pay.
Gateless entry and exit will continue at the south entrance, and the north exit will have an automatic one-way exit gate.
Jeremy Moore is the associate director of parking and transportation, which is currently part of the larger Butler Arts and Events enterprise management department. Before last fall, the role was under the Butler University Police Department (BUPD).
Moore is in charge of parking permit registration and distribution, running the parking office, operating the parking garage and managing event parking. LAZ is partially taking over that parking management through the new system.
He explained that the installed license plate reader system will also be implemented in the new garage on South Campus and will allow guests 24 hours to pay for parking.
“We’ll be looking at reports after those 24 hours, as far as citations [go],” Moore said. “So citations would be issued after the fact, not like, ‘Hey, I’m in class, and I didn’t pay.’”
The LAZ system came to fruition after Butler decided not to work with the hourly payment system, ParkMobile, in June. Due to the logistics of this switch, there was no parking fee at all in the garage from July to October.
Sophomore nursing major Elsie Brown currently has a G5 parking pass, which allows her to park solely in the garage on the fifth floor. She is worried that the new system might try to ticket students who do have registered permits and also allow too many guests into the garage during big events.
“I wonder how that’ll work for events,” Brown said. “[The system] is cool, I guess if it works correctly… I do [already] find it hard to find a spot whenever they have a basketball game, or Clowes is having [an event].”
With no official test of the system during events, campus residents and visitors will have to wait and see how the new system functions.