The more than $250,000 collected last year for parking tickets by the City of Athens was average compared to similar-sized Ohio college towns.
In 2004, the Athens Police Department issued 34,019 parking tickets, collecting more than $261,000 in fines. APD also collected $510,000 from parking meters.
APD parking ticket revenue was higher than the police departments of cities with universities of comparable size, such as Oxford and Bowling Green, and was only $50,000 less than Akron, a city with ten times Athens' population.
According to the 2000 census, Akron had a population of more than 217,000, while Athens' population was just more than 21,000.
The $771,000 collected from parking went to the Athens General Fund, which pays for police services, among other things. Last year's APD budget was $2.6 million, said Athens police chief Rick Mayer.
Both the city and Ohio University admit that parking near campus has been a major problem for students.
APD Capt. Tom Pyle said the city's ticketing practices make parking spots easier to find by forcing students to obey parking laws.
Contrary to popular belief
we try to make (parking) accessible to students and everyone Pyle said.
Athens enforces Ohio's optional 24-hour parking law, requiring drivers to move their cars at least every 24 hours. Uptown parking is limited to two hours to keep business employees from taking spots from patrons, Pyle said.
APD tickets range in price from $5 for an expired meter to $100 for illegally parking in a handicapped spot.
Last year, OU's revenue from parking tickets was similar to, or less than, that of other large Ohio universities. OU Transportation and Parking Services issued 29,165 tickets in 2004 worth $600,920.
Miami University of Ohio collected $904,934 last year, while Bowling Green State University collected $665,923.
To alleviate parking problems, Athens and OU recently created a task force to unify the five transit systems running in the city, said Sherry Barnes, director of Transportation Services for OU and a member of the task force.
The group includes city and university officials and owners of private transportation systems.
We want to ensure we're getting every constituent group there not just students and not just citizens
Barnes said.
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