Parking Your Car at UGA

Get the Last Parking Spot!

When getting ready to send your student off to UGA, the decision of should they bring their car to school, and then what to do with it when they do, must be decided. Parking will be an ongoing issue. Having a car on campus makes things easier for your student, but UGA has a bus system that runs through campus 7 days a week, and UGA students get to use Ath-Transit for free, which is the public transportation system in Athens. About half of my daughter’s friends brought their cars to UGA their freshman year, and the other half didn’t; both groups were fine, so it is really up to you and your student’s preferences.

UGA Parking is a little bit different than most college parking systems since they assign parking based on a Priority System. The priority system shows the priority order for each lot or parking area on UGA’s campus. Your student will receive an email letting them know that they are now allowed to sign up for a parking spot and will then choose five different lots that they would be happy parking in. If they are living on campus, we recommend choosing lots close to their dorm, but if they are not, we recommend choosing lots that are closest to their classes.

The Lots

These five lots will be ranked 1-5, 1 being the one they want the most, and 5 being the least favorite of their selections. You can find a map of parking lots, labeled by their different priority groupings. Most people in dorms are awarded parking passes as close to their dorms as possible, but there’s no guarantee. If your student is more likely to drive a motorcycle or a scooter on campus, there is a specific permit for those types of vehicles. There are specific parking areas for scooters and for motorcycles.

The Transportation Services website has a lot of information regarding student permits and, if you have further questions, you can always contact Transportation Services. Upon receiving a permit, your ATHENA account will be charged and you will have to pay for it prior to the due date or risk losing your permit.

Another option for students is the Park-And-Ride parking lot; this is a huge UGA lot out on the corner of College Station and North Oconee Access Rd. While very far from campus, buses come out here every 15 mins to take students to campus. This is one of the cheaper lot options and is mainly designed for upperclassmen who do not live on campus.

If your student chooses to leave their vehicle at home, do not fear. UGA busses run 17 different routes with tons and tons of different stops. My daughter lived on campus her freshman year due to the live-on requirement and discovered that she lived less than a five-minute walk from five different bus stops. The busses are extremely accessible to students and the UGA App is a fabulous tool for following the busses via its live map feature.

The UGA lots are only “permit lots” for a certain time during the day, most commonly 7 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday, but make sure your student checks before they invite friends to park in their lot or before they park elsewhere. UGA strictly enforces parking and does routine checks to give out citations for parking violations, which are not cheap to pay back. For visitors, all decks are available if you are willing to pay the hourly and/or daily fees required.

Double Parked?

One last thing to be aware of is that UGA double sells lots; your student may occupy it during every day of the year, except home football games. UGA sells out certain lots for Football Parking Passes each year. For game days your student, depending on the lot they are in, might be required to move their vehicle elsewhere before Saturday at 5 am and will have to leave their car in that secondary location until Sunday morning. More information will be sent out to your student regarding this small inconvenience, but it is only for 6 days out of the whole school year.

The university tries to make the system very easy; however, with over 40,000 students, faculty, and staff, easy isn’t always possible.

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