As many San Jose State students return to in-person classes, commuter students say they struggle to find parking or use alternative modes of transportation to get to campus.
Economics senior Richard Cao said he was excited to return to classes but commuting to campus is distressing.
“I was excited to go to in-person classes just for like, you know, the in-person activities and just learning better in the classroom. But definitely, driving to school makes me unhappy,” Cao said.
SJSU Parking Director Eric Cross said parking is less affected than previous years.
Cross said the Fourth Street and 10th Street garages would typically be at 90% capacity at this point in the semester.
Cross said the Fourth Street garage averages at about 30% capacity and the 10th Street garage is at about 50-60% capacity currently.
He said the parking office was concerned because it was anticipating larger parking numbers than it received.
Cross said the lower parking numbers are largely because of the transition to hybrid classes.
“In 2019, the bulk of our classes were set aside to be in person and now the mix has been transitioned a lot more to hybridized,” he said.
SJSU Parking Services has been updating its services over the course of the pandemic, Cross said.
It also built a new parking garage in South Campus, made paying for parking garages easier with the use of an online parking app and has continued to operate the Park and Ride lot on Seventh Street at South Campus, Cross said.
SJSU has three parking garages on campus, according to SJSU’s Parking Services website.
The 10th Street, Seventh Street and Fourth Street garages are located on SJSU’s main campus, according to the same website.
The South Campus garage is located approximately two miles South from main campus at the corner of South 10th and Alma streets.
South Campus includes Park and Ride lots, CEFCU Stadium, Simpkins Athletics Building, Simpkins Center and other athletics facilities, according to the SJSU website.
Cross said the newly constructed four-story garage provides 1,500 parking spaces.
“[The South Campus garage] was made with the intent of providing parking for commuters to mitigate the impacts that we've had at the park and ride, which you know, typically at this time of the year would be at capacity, overflowing,” Cross said.
While the university has multiple garages available for campus community members, some students say they prefer to park on streets near campus and walk.
Environmental studies senior Aivy Le said she doesn't like parking on campus or using Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) services when coming from her South San Jose home.
Le said she parks in the free spaces around campus but the commute is stressful.
“Driving in downtown is confusing because there's a lot of one way streets and there's a lot of signs for parking that are confusing,” Le said.
Cross suggested students don’t park on nearby streets because of various city permits needed.
“Unless you have a street permit, don't do it,” he said.
As of Aug. 13, University and South University Neighborhood (S.U.N.) permits are required to park on residential streets around SJSU campus, according to the City of San Jose website.
Fines go up to $65 in those areas and there are certain time zones and limits for certain parking spaces, according to the same City of San Jose website and the official South University Neighborhood website.
Cross said the university gave back its leases on city permit meters around the campus perimeter to provide spaces for Uber and Lyft drop-off and pick-up zones and to decrease traffic.
“[City parking officials] patrol this place like a hawk and the city is very good at what they do in that aspect,” he said.
Le said she doesn’t prefer to park on campus because of the expensive fees.
“I think we should have free parking,” she said. “I would rather have free parking than a multi-million dollar gym that I'm not going to go to because it's in downtown.”
On-campus parking permits range between $85 to $192 a semester, according to the SJSU Parking Services website.
Cross said SJSU Parking Services has sold about 9,700 permits so far this semester.
“This is way below,” Cross said. “Typically, we would have a total of well over 14,000, maybe 15,000 permits sold.”
He said about 7,000 of those permits belong to students.
Cross said many students live close enough to campus that it would be more cost effective to leave their cars at home.
He said students should use other forms of transportation including walking or public transportation to avoid parking permit fees.
“[Students] are spending $400 plus a year for parking. That could go a long way towards books, tuition, food,” Cross said.
VTA buses and regional transit are some public transportation options available to SJSU students, according to the SJSU Transportation Solutions website.
Cross said the university has been working “extensively” with VTA and other transit partners to make different service lines available near the main campus.
After a public transit worker shot and killed 10 people including himself on May 26 at the San Jose VTA light rail yard in the area of Younger Avenue and San Pedro Street, the VTA station paused its operations, according to an Aug. 25 San Jose Spotlight article.
The station reopened on Aug. 29, according to its website.
SJSU offers a SmartPass program that includes free transportation on VTA buses and light rail for eligible students, according to its website.
Students must be enrolled in either hybrid or in-person classes for the Fall 2021 semester, have a mailing address in Santa Clara County or live in on-campus housing to be eligible for the program, according to the SJSU SmartPass website.
Richard Cao said although he doesn’t like commuting because of confusing street sign rules and limited space in parking garages, commuting by bus can take up to 45 minutes.
“If you live where I live like [on the] North side, [the bus ride] . . . I'll be honest, it's long as hell,” Cao said.
He said he has to arrive at the main campus around 6:50 a.m. to avoid parking difficulties.
“Once 9-to-10 a.m. rolls around, street parking becomes a little hard to find,” Cao said. “The garage starts filling up by 11 [a.m.] It's pretty much packed, which is kind of weird because even though there's less students on campus, the parking garages are still packed.”
