Beware the campus tow truck

By Ky Belk
The Metropolitan

You walk out to the parking lot after a late night in the library or a movie, and your car is gone. Not stolen, but towed.

Non-payment for three or more parking tickets is the primary reason cars are towed from campus.

Parking agents donât go out of their way to find cars that have multiple Auraria tickets, said Mark Gallagher, director of Parking and Transportation. Finding them, however, is not a difficult task.

ãPeople are creatures of habit,ä he said. ãThey keep coming back to the same lot.ä

Auraria parking officials issue between 22,000 and 24,000 parking tickets each year. Revenues from those fines total about $190,000 per year and they are used for parking lot improvement and to pay parking lot staff.

Hand-held computers alert parking officials if cars they are checking have two or more tickets. After three tickets, the parking agent is required to put a ãred tag noticeä on the car, Gallagher said.

The red tag says the vehicleâs owner has three days to pay the fines, which range from $10 to $50, or the car will be towed. D & V Towing, Aurariaâs towing contractor, charges an additional $40 to release cars.

Parking officials distributed 644 red tag warnings and D & V towed 85 of the 1.7 million cars parked on campus last year, Gallagher said.

This year, however, people who use metered parking spots at Auraria could get fewer tickets.

Auraria installed new digital meters  with a time limit of four hours, up from the 90 minute limit last spring.

Students who believe they have been ticketed unfairly can appeal the tickets to an appeals referee on campus.

 Gallagher said in the case of an individualâs first ticket, the referee frequently reduces the fine.