With the new parking system, students can no longer escape paying parking fees.
 
According to the Office of Estate and Development’s website, the National University of Singapore’s car parks will be installed with an automated parking system that uses the Electronic Road Pricing technology.

Ng Yousi, a fourth-year School of Engineering student, said this means students can no longer cheat the campus parking system like they used to, due to the increased efficiency of the new system.

He said, previously, some car parks in the Kent Ridge campus had “flaws.”

Ng said the gentries of the car park near Raffles hall and the car park connecting SoE and the School of Design and Environment, were not coordinated to register the entry and exit of a car.

Parking in those car parks were thus “always free,” Ng said.

The Engineering student also said the barriers of the car park near Temasek Hall and Eusoff Hall were too short. Students need only to drive further away from the barrier in order to escape paying for parking, Ng said.

The Observer’s recent survey of the car parks in NUS showed that most of them have already been installed with the new automated system, which allows cars to enter the car park based on In-Vehicle Unit identification.

While students do not seem to mind the new system, some are unhappy with the parking charges.

The NUS car parks charge $0.015 per minute, beginning from 8.30 a.m. till 5.30 p.m., on weekdays.

Sulaiman Bin Salim, manager of the Transport/Logistics/Car park division of the Office of Estate and Development, said there has been no change in the pricing applied now from that when the pre-ERP parking system was in use.

The OED states on its Frequently Asked Questions webpage that pay parking was implemented in NUS to encourage the use of public transport, moderate demand for parking lots, manage traffic flow and optimize land use.

Sulaiman said pay parking is a fair and cost-effective system.

Students have to pay for the use of these resources, he said, adding that students are subsidized. Students also pay less for parking as compared to NUS staff, he said.

“Land is a premium in Singapore,” Sulaiman added. “ Nothing is free.”
SDE student Olivia Tang said while she would rather not pay parking charges, she understands the need for charging students for parking on campus because the limited number of parking lots requires the need for paid parking.

She added that the season parking cost of $20 is “reasonable.” 

Not all students think that having to pay for parking on campus is justifiable.

“I think it’s ridiculous. They shouldn’t make students pay,” said third-year SDE student Crystal Chum.

Chum said NUS should take into account the fact that students spend long hours in school and would end up having to pay hefty parking fees.

Ng supports Chum’s view. While the engineering student admitted he finds the new parking system in school “quite satisfactory,” he said parking charges are too expensive.

To save money, Ng said he opts to park in the Kent Vale car park, where parking is free. 

“But Kent Vale is getting very crowded. After the car park system changed, not many people park within school,” he added.

However, there are still some students who have found a way around having to pay parking charges on campus.

“Normally, I’ll stay pass 7:30 p.m. so I don’t have to pay parking anyway,” said Lee Jun Xian, another third-year SDE student.

Meanwhile, Tang pointed out that the barriers at the entrance and exit of the campus car parks are left raised daily at around 7:30p.m. This would mean that students who leave after this time would not be charged for parking, she said.

Sulaiman said the OED has not received feedback about such an occurrence. With the new parking system, vehicle owners are charged for all “official hours” of parking, he said.

Apart from parking charges, the lack of sufficient parking lots in NUS has been a concern among students who drive to school.

Tan Jia Hui, a second-year student from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, said he experiences difficulty finding parking lots in car park 10 near the Faculty of Science, as it is always crowded.

Both Chum and Tang, who park in the SDE car park, agree that finding available lots in school is a problem.

“There is not enough parking lots, especially in SDE. Visitor lots are very limited,” Chum said.

Both students and visitors to NUS are to park only in car park lots marked in white.

According to Sulaiman, there are numerically enough lots for everyone in NUS. The problem of finding parking lots arises when everyone wants to park near to their destination, he said.

The OED manager said the office is looking into the issue and has plans to increase the number of parking lots in NUS.

One of the more “immediate” plans is to increase parking space at the medical hub, which is located near the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and FoS. There is also the intention to build a multi-storied car park in the future, Sulaiman said.

He added that these plans do depend on the amount of funding the OED receives.

The OED is in charge of managing new developments on campus as well as maintaining campus buildings and facilities.

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