University of Hawaii at Manoa to raise parking rates starting next year
Parking fees for students and employees at the University of Hawaii at Manoa will go up next year.
The Board of Regents on Thursday approved new rates that will be phased in over six years starting next fall. Parking fees at the flagship campus have not been raised in eight years. The vote was unanimous, with one abstention.
The student parking rate will rise to $41.50 next fall from $35.50 per month now and eventually reach $58.50 in the 2025 fiscal year, which is a 65 percent increase overall. The employee rate also will be $41.50 monthly next year and climb to $77 by 2025 in the lower campus structure, with higher prices for surface lots.
Commuter Services had proposed steep increases in motorcycle and moped parking but scaled them back in response to feedback from students and staff.
The price to park a motorcycle or moped will rise to $40 per semester from $30 next fall for both employees and students. After that the rates will gradually increase to $75 per semester for students and $100 per semester for employees in the 2025 fiscal year.
The original proposal would have seen rates soar to $154 in 2025 for motorcycles and mopeds for students and employees.
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Professor Richard Zeebe of the Department of Oceanography testified that the change from the original proposal did not go far enough and left moped and motorcycle rates still facing a “huge hike” relative to cars and trucks.
“I strongly urge you to reconsider and drastically reduce the hike for motorcycle/moped to encourage more commuters to switch to two wheels,” he testified.
Instead, the regents directed that a task force be formed to incentivize alternate forms of transportation.
Daytime visitors will continue to pay a $5 flat rate in the parking garage until 2024, when it will rise to $6.
Revenue from parking fees will go toward repairing parking facilities, including railings, fire safety upgrades, resurfacing and elevator modernization, as well as personnel costs, according to Commuter Services.
Details of the parking fees are online at manoa.hawaii.edu/commuter/parkingrate.html.
