Following the rules of the road can oftentimes be a challenge for drivers, especially when they are in a rush to get to class. Recently, UA Parking and Transportation Services have stepped up the monitoring of speeders in parking garages with radar enforcement to combat speedy motorists.
“We’ve gotten two new officers, who are focusing a lot more on doing radar,” said PTS Lead Parking Services Officer, Alan Remick. “It has enabled us to do a lot more of it, which is awesome, because it keeps the speed down in the garage which also helps with the safety of the campus in general.”
Although many drivers have not noticed the radar enforcement before, it’s nothing new to UA parking garages. David Heineking, executive director for PTS, said that the technology has been in place for years.
“We started the program in about 2008 or 2009,” Heineking said. “We did it after noticing a number of complaints about peoples’ driving in the garages, in particular speeding, stop signs, wrong-way driving — all of those types of things.”
Vehicles parked in the Tyndall garage on Friday, April 29. Since the increase of the speed limit in UA parking garages, Parking and Transportation Services has boasted a zero tolerance policy against speeding motorists.
Speeding became an issue in the garages when the speed limit was raised from five mph to 15 mph, according to Remick.
“There was some real concern from some people that there was going to be crashes,” Heineking said. “We haven’t see a lot of crashes, but we felt it was important to take some steps.”
While lowest price for a moving violation from PTS is $60, prices increase for recurring violations — a third moving violation will cost around $170 in fines.
With the new speed limit increase, PTS policy boasts a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to driving over the limit.
“Fifteen miles per hour is a reasonable and good speed limit,” Remick said. “Technically it’s zero tolerance, however between 17 and 19 miles per hour, we’ll issue someone a warning. If they’re going 20 miles per hour or more we will issue them a citation. If they already received a warning, we’ll go ahead and issue a citation.”
Speeding is typically enforced by law enforcement agencies, however PTS does have jurisdiction to monitor and issue speeding citations in UA garages.
“The [University of Arizona Police Department] cannot enforce most traffic laws in a parking garage, so it falls to us to enforce that,” Heineking said. “It’s not a criminal or civil; it’s a violation of Parking and Transportation [Services] rules, so it’s similar to a parking ticket in the enforcement, and the penalties.”
Once PTS identifies a speeder with a certified radar, they will track down the vehicle and issue a citation, but that won’t get a driver in trouble with insurance. Heineking said that PTS does not notify insurance companies about the citation and it does not go on a driver’s record.
When and where PTS will setup radar enforcement is not made public, and the technology is not performed every day. If a driver is caught with multiple speeding violations and other traffic violations in parking garages, it can leave them without a parking permit, in the Dean of Students Office, or even left to deal with UAPD, according to Remick.
“We would look at the totality of what they’ve done, look at the thing as a whole. How are they driving on campus, did they get the message; and then they may do a Dean of Students referral. [The UA] may possibly revoke their parking privileges, there’s different things they can do,” Remick said. “If it’s so egregious that they’ve done tailgating in the garage, which is someone coming through the garage and not paying as they go out, and if they’ve done that several times they may be referred to [UAPD] for prosecution. It just depends on the situation.”
Heinneking said the goal is to take more preventative measures, rather than punitive ones. To alert speedy drivers, PTS has made radar enforcement visible to drivers with a light-up board displaying an oncoming vehicle’s speed.
“Our goal is not to write tickets — our goal is to get people to drive safely in the garages,” Heineking said. “If you’ve seen them out there, you’ve seen the big board we have out there, and the idea is that sometimes people don’t realize they’re going as fast as they’re going. … Believe me, if we never wrote another ticket again, that would be just fine with me.”
While no motorist revels at the sight of a manila envelope displayed on their windshield, Heineking believes what he and PTS does is important to the safety of students and anyone parking on campus.
“Imagine if you bought a parking permit, and you went out there and everyone was parked illegally, and you couldn’t find a spot to park. Imagine if everyone was driving 35 miles per hour in the garage,” Heineking said. “What we do is important, it’s for safety, it’s to protect the rights of the people who pay for permits.”