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Posted by: laura_cooper on 04/03/2009 12:19 PM
Updated by: furlong on 04/03/2009 12:22 PM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM

Park properly - or pay the price

Even with new parking lots being built, Canadore can't let people park free.

Parking 'cop' Richard Guy explains future plans and dreams for the lots at Canadore/Nipissing.

By Laura Cooper
theclaw.ca

Whether you’re just dropping someone off in front of the school, or running in to grab a double-double from Tim's just inside the front door; you better pay for parking. Otherwise you could suffer the wrath of Security honcho Richard Guy.

“We know every game ever thought of,” Guy, the guru of ticketing at the Education Centre campus, says.

For the last 20 years Guy has worked at Canadore College in the Security department (he guarantees that in nine more years, to the day he was hired, he will retire).

In two decades, he says, Guy has heard all the excuses in the book, including his favorites; "I just ran into the building for a minute," or "I didn’t see the ‘pay and display’ machine outside."

“There’s only a 20-foot sign above it,” an exasperated Guy sighs.

He compares stopping anywhere on campus to going downtown and dropping someone off at the optometrist. If you don’t pay for parking on the city street, you get a ticket. Alternatively, you could sit in your car and wait for your passenger to come back out.

Illegal parking on campus is one of Security's biggest concerns. The new computer software the department has is designed to ensure offenders are tracked properly along with tracking parking passes and permits.

“The parking ticket module is so when we run the (licence) plate through, we know if they had a valid permit,” Guy explains.

The new software package is linked with the MTO (Ontario Ministry of Transportation), so if the car was never registered with the college all Guy has to do is send the plate number to the MTO, via database, and - voila. Instant information. Guy can know to whom the vehicle is registered and with the help of the finance department at the college, send the owner an invoice for the outstanding ticket amount.

“Plus a $40 administration fee,” Guy adds.

“It has nothing to do with who drives the car, it’s who owns it.”

Security veteran Guy estimates 95% of cars driven at the college are owned by the students’ parents.

“I’m going to assume that the parents will certainly square the situation away with their child,” Guy says.

Security is trying to get away from towing vehicles to solve the problem. Brown’s Towing, the company traditionally used to remove illegally parked vehicles, used to tell the school who owned the car. Then came the tedious process of billing the owner for the tow and then billing for the parking infraction, too.

“It’s also not fair for you and I to pay for our parking passes and not find a spot because of the ones who are playing the game, or think that we (Security) can’t do anything to find them,” Guys warns.

“That is all gonna stop.”

Guy says he wishes he had more help. With only one or two staff to canvass all 10 lots, there will always be cheaters who slip through.

“I pick certain days of the week to when I think that we would have the most infractions. I try to mix it up when I bring in extra staff," Guy adds.

“So nobody can see us at one side then move their car to a different part.”

REBELLIOUS PARKERS

With 80% of people paying for parking and not being able to find a spot because of the other 20% decide to be rebels and not pay, Guy is frustrated by those who skirt around the rules.

“I don’t get people who haven’t paid for parking in complaining about no spots (to park). It’s the ones that have paid,” Guy says.

“It’s not right.’

Technically, Security could have a vehicle towed after it is ticketed once. However, Guy finds this unnescessarily time-consuming. The parking ticket problem has been getting out of hand and with new building projects and extended lots going up around campus, Guy wants the infractions to stop.

“We have to get control of it; once we break ground for the learning library our parking is going to have another lot built,” Guy explains.

“We will sell out parking.”

The long-term goal for Guy is gated parking lots.

“When you buy your parking pass you’ll be issued a swipe card. Without that card you can’t get into (the lot.)

The gated parking idea is close to Guy’s version of a perfect world, at least as far as parking on campus is concerned. Guy says buying a parking pass is actually buying the privilege. Under a gated system, he adds, a pass wouldn’t be for, example lot #1; it would be for all the lots.

“If your classes start at 10:30 then you’re probably not going to be in Lot #1. When you come in the gate it just won’t work because the lot is full. You would then have to go to the next lot you’re valid for,” Guy says of his perfect world.

“The Visitor’s Lot would be gated, with an actual person there like the one downtown.”

Guy explains the creator of swipe-card parking has anticipated every scam imaginable. For example, if you swipe your card and drive in, then walk out and give your card to someone else to drive in and try parking, it won’t work. The card is designed to understand that the vehicle is in the lot and won’t reactivate until the car leaves the lot.

Guy says everyone handles getting a ticket differently, and understands when people get irate, but wants them to understand that they were wrong. That’s what it comes down to.

Even Guy admits he's tempted to break the rules just like the people he spends his days trying to bring to justice.

“If I go downtown and I run into the back (of a store) or something - and I think everybody makes the decision ‘should I pay the meter or not?’ - then look up and down the road to see if there are cops.
You see if you can make it. If you get caught, you get caught.”

But to Guy, temptation is no excuse. So don't expect him to cut you slack if he catches you somewhere you don't belong at Canadore.