Washington University Park-E-Geddon or Carfuffle 2017 - The Danforth Campus Parking Saga

Permit pricing pulled from the Town Hall presentation
Many exciting things have been happening in the world lately, but in the small bubble that is Washington University in St. Louis, one of the biggest topics of discussion lately is extremely mundane - parking! This May after graduation, the parking lots on the east of Danforth Campus are going to be closed and ripped up to make way for an underground garage and some new buildings. What that means is that parking on-campus will be at a premium so it was time for a new parking strategy on campus. There is a lot of new information online but one thing that they had not presented (until yesterday) was the actual pricing for permits next fiscal year. The numbers were finally revealed in a Town Hall meeting and their online summary is deeply hidden on their site, so I will summarize here in an easy to find location! One thing some of us noticed was a slide saying that "most" permit prices were only increasing 6%-12% so I thought I would have to run some quick calculations to check that special Wash U math:


Here is a table I created comparing current FY17 prices with FY18, and I noticed their 6% to 12% claim for "most" permits is definitely only for "two particular permits". I also tried to figure out what the current price is for West Campus employees to park over there, and I could not find a price anywhere, so I am guessing they are either paying nothing or the same $15 price current "Off-Site" (now ParkSmart) users are paying. They seem to be the biggest losers in this whole deal:


PermitFY17FY18Increase
Red$1,680.00$1,885.0012.20%
Yellow$699.00$757.258.33%
West Campus$15.00 ?$594.753865.00%
North Campus$342.00$396.5015.94%
ParkSmart < 45K$15.00$25.0066.67%
ParkSmart > 45K$15.00$104.00593.33%
Red DailyNA$18.00
Yellow Daily$5.00$9.0080.00%
Red - Evening$155.00$175.5013.23%
Yellow - Evening$30.00$34.0013.33%

West Campus employees who I am guessing used to pay only $15 are now required to pay nearly $600 to park in West Campus (a whopping 3,865% increase!), whereas Danforth employees pay either $25 or $104 to ParkSmart which are also huge increases of 67% and 593% respectively over the previous "Off-Site" parking prices. Daily parking also makes a huge 80% increase to $9 a day with an $18 red daily price for big spenders.  

I did notice the "highlights" slide mentioned Bearly Drivers and Occasional Parking prices will stay the same, which are a great deal. I will continue to use the Occasional Parking plan and will use ParkSmart for this summer when my son needs to come into campus to work. I may drop it in September, although for only $9/month I may keep it as a backup to the MetroLink. I tried it a couple times this week and it works pretty well. I will be curious to see what it is like this summer in July and August.


Location: 1 Brookings Dr, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA

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