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Top Four Citations Issued at UH and How to Avoid Receiving Them

Parking and Transportation Services has a responsibility to ensure that all vehicles parked on campus are supposed to be here, and that they are in compliance with the parking rules and regulations, which are posted online.

Students, faculty and staff who purchase a parking permit should read over the rules. In fact, everyone who gets a permit must check a box acknowledging they have read and understand the regulations.

In addition, many of these rules are emphasized in various emails distributed to the UH community during the course of the year. Vehicles that are parked in accordance with these regulations do not receive citations, vehicles not in accordance do.

Just four violations account for nearly 85% of all citations that are issued at UH. What are they and how can you avoid receiving one?

no valid permit

It is important to remember that there is no free parking at UH. To park on campus, you must either have a valid permit or you must utilize paid visitor parking.

When someone comes to campus without a parking permit and parks their vehicle in a lot where a permit is required, they are issued a no valid permit citation.

Simply by parking in a visitor parking area and paying the applicable rate, this citation can be avoided.

A less common reason this citation is issued is when a permit holder fails to update the license plate on their vehicle, or they bring a different car to campus and don't add it to their permit. When enforcement personnel encounter such vehicles, they have no way of knowing that the person who drove it has an active permit or not. Thus, a citation is issued.

Per UH parking regulations, the license plate of the vehicle you park on campus must be active on your parking account prior to leaving the vehicle unattended.

This citation is avoidable by following the simple steps provided here and here to update your vehicle information. This can be done quickly and easily.

no plate facing drive lane

The no scannable plate facing drive lane citation is by far the easiest to avoid and yet is the second most citation written.

Parking and Transportation enforces parking rules and regulations by utilizing license plate recognition (LPR) technology. For this to work successfully and efficiently, the enforcement vehicle must be able to easily traverse up and down a drive lane "reading" plates.

The plates must be facing the drive lane for the equipment to read them, and they must be placed in the manufacturer's recommended location. Plates that are put in the windshield or on the dashboard do not qualify as they are unable to be read by the system.

A common misconception is that a front license plate is required in order to park at UH. That is not true. However, if you don't have a front plate on your vehicle, then you should make sure the back plate faces the drive lane. This rule holds true whether the plates are temporary paper ones or the permanent plates.

To avoid this citation, each and every time you park, simply look at your vehicle before leaving it unattended. If you have a valid plate facing the drive lane, you are good to go. If the plate is missing for whatever reason, you will need to repark the vehicle so that a valid plate is facing the drive lane.

It is the customer's responsibility to ensure compliance before leaving the vehicle unattended.

no payment in visitor area

The citation for expired/no visitor payment is written when a vehicle that is parked in a text-to-pay location has no active payment on their account. This happens either when the individual did not pay at all or if they paid for a certain amount of time and exceeded it.

The text-to-pay system sends reminders to those who have paid that their time is running out and allows them to add more time.

Payment is required prior to leaving the vehicle unattended and it is the customer's responsibility to ensure that the payment process has successfully completed before leaving. If you have trouble making payment, you will need to use one of the gated visitor locations on campus. More information on where those can be found is here.

To avoid this citation, simply make sure payment is secure prior to leaving the vehicle unattended and that the payment covers the length of time the vehicle will be parked.
 

parked in incorrect lot

Parking on campus is restricted between the hours of 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. This means that during those times, permit holders must park in their designated parking zone or garage. After 3 p.m. and anytime on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you can park with a valid permit in any ungated and non-restricted parking space. More information about relaxed parking can be found here.

To avoid receiving the citation for parking in incorrect lot, you can simply park in your designated parking area at all times. However, if you park elsewhere during relaxed parking, it is imperative you return your vehicle to your designated parking area before relaxed parking hours end.

Of course, there are other regulations that must be followed. To see all citations and regulations, please refer to our website. Parking and Transportation Services' goal in our enforcement program is compliance. We do not want to write citations, but if a vehicle is non-compliant, we have no choice as we owe it to those individuals who are following the guidelines. You are always welcome to reach out to us at parking@uh.edu if you have questions or need more information.



Posted: Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024