University of Alabama Transportation Services announced July 18 that it began testing electronic parking citations in lieu of physical ones on July 21 for registered vehicles.
The announcement said the change, which was made to “reduce paper and eliminate waste,” is expected to be fully implemented this fall.
“We are always looking for ways to be more sustainable and financially responsible,” said Amy Haines, associate director of parking, in an email statement. “By eliminating the citation paper, we are able to save money for our department. In addition, less citation paper means less waste.”
At the issuing officer’s discretion, violators whose car is registered with the University may receive an email “e-citations.” If the violator’s car is not registered with the University, the issuing officer will issue a paper ticket as before.
Haines said that during the test phase and for a couple of months after full implementation of the e-citation system at the beginning of the fall semester, those who receive e-citations will find a sticker on the driver’s side of the car’s windshield to alert them of their ticket.
She clarified that the only thing changing about the parking citation system is that officers will issue “e-citations” through email to owners of registered vehicles, but parking fines will still be automatically billed to student accounts when applicable.
Amid the change, several students voiced their concerns about and support for the e-citation system.
Jenna Ziemnisky, a sophomore majoring in economics, said she disagrees with the change and believes physical tickets should be used in all instances.
“Physical tickets are better reminders that you have something to pay,” Ziemnisky wrote via text. “I also feel like seeing a ticket makes you less likely to repeat the action since it feels a little more real than receiving an email.”
She added that the transition to e-citations may be hard for those who have already been parking on campus for one or two years and have gotten used to seeing physical tickets. To make the transition easier, she suggested that officers temporarily issue both physical and e-mail tickets to violators.
Haines responded to Ziemnisky’s reservations about the transition.
“Completely understand and appreciate her concern, and this was the main reason we decided to use the peel-off sticker to alert the individual that an e-citation had been issued,” Haines said, adding that Transportation Services believes stickers would help with the transition.
When asked, she did not explicitly state whether Transportation Services would consider issuing both physical and email tickets to each violator during the test period as Ziemnisky suggested.
Trevor Chandler, a sophomore majoring in political science, also disagreed with the switch.
He said that emails might be easily deleted by accident or overlooked considering the large number of emails the University already sends to students.
Despite this concern, he acknowledged that the change would make for less waste, make issuing citations more convenient for issuing officers and make students who receive tickets have fewer papers to keep up with.
“But personally, I like to keep document of everything I have, from bills to a citation like that etc.,” he wrote. “I feel a paper copy of anything is always better to keep up with.”
Conversely, Brady Mitchell, a junior majoring in public relations, supported Transportation Services’ move to electronic ticketing and believed stickers would be adequate to alert students of electronic tickets.
“I think the benefits of it is that people that are repeat offenders will be able to just start racking up fines, and there’s no way they can say that they didn’t receive a ticket,” Mitchell wrote in a text.
These opinions represent just some of those held by students. Transportation Services encouraged those with questions or concerns about the change to contact them at 205-348-5471 or [email protected].
