“I’m not surprised.”
That’s what passes through Catherine Larocque’s mind every time she’s standing there, looking at a dreaded white or yellow slip of paper placed neatly beneath her windshield wiper.
Larocque, a 22 year-old University of Ottawa nursing student, has received four parking tickets at the campus since her first semester in 2013.
She’s in the midst of her third year now, and says she now refuses to drive to school more than once or twice a week.
“It’s insane, the parking situation is brutal. I only drive now whenever it’s absolutely necessary,” she says.
Larocque isn’t alone in her frustrations.
In fact, based on an analysis of City of Ottawa data on parking violations from 2012 to 2014, obtained through a freedom of information request, people who park on University of Ottawa grounds are nearly twice as likely to get a parking ticket than those who attend most other post-secondary institutions in the city.
This does not include Carleton University, since it issues private parking tickets. Schools like uOttawa, Algonquin College and La Cité Collegiale all have shared parking enforcement and revenue sharing agreements with the city.
City of Ottawa tickets range from $40 to $450. From 2012 to 2014, uOttawa has issued about 30 thousand parking tickets. That’s a total of nearly $2 million in fines – an average of $660 thousand per year.
Compared to Carleton and Algonquin, uOttawa also has one of the most expensive ranges of monthly student parking permit options. Its hourly prices are also 50 cents more than Algonquin and La Cité. Carleton’s is a full dollar cheaper, since they don’t have to abide by city standards.
“It’s an ongoing issue,” says Larocque. “Permits are too expensive and if I pay per hour, in most lots, I max out at 16 dollars.”
Claudine Thibault, administrative appeal officer at uOttawa’s parking services, says that each year the university conducts a survery to see what the parking prices are like downtown.
“We try to be like the prices around the area,” she says.
But price isn’t the only issue, says Larocque.
“There’s not enough parking … you can’t have all of your parking lots designated as only for pass holders. We’re always stuck having to look for obscure parking spots.”
Across the university’s Main, Lees and Alta Vista campuses, there are 12 permit holder lots, but only 8 visitor lots.
Declan Webber, a fourth-year biomedical student at uOttawa, agrees with Larocque, but says he often chooses the obscure and less convenient spots, parking in Sandy Hill rather than on campus.
“It’s free there. Many of the streets have signs saying ‘free one hour parking’, but you rarely get tickets for parking longer,” says Webber.
Over the four years of his studies, Webber has gotten two tickets doing this.
“I prefer to take the chance. It’s too expensive otherwise,” he says.
Thibault says that since five years ago, the university has been losing many outdoor lots due to construction, but she says there is no current plan to make more spaces available.
“They just closed another one of the parking lots to make a green space,” says Larocque. “Which is great, green spaces are awesome, but it just makes the parking situation worse.”
The University of Ottawa had just over 42 thousand students enrolled last year. Currently, it has 3,127 parking spots.
Thibault says that these issues come with such a centrally located downtown school.
“Students often want something near their classes, but we cannot accommodate everybody, and people end up getting fined,” she says.
If you’re hoping to cut your chances on getting a ticket next time you park on University of Ottawa property, try to take public transportation in months like March, where the school has, on average from 2012-2014, given the most amount of tickets. Year round, avoiding Lot “K” may be your next best bet. Check out this chart for more details: