UAB Transportation Office

employees have a horrible attitude. There is no reason to have a nasty attitude about things either us students can’t control or had no prior knowledge to. I wish I would have caught her name to blast her publicly about how horribly I was talked to about a minor inconvenience.

I was wrongly charged $575 for a fall and spring parking permit. It should have been $349, and that is with a "fall discount." They can charge your student account real quick, but of course "it's a process" to put the $226 back onto my account. After being told a credit would be applied to my account, I called back because I didn't see it. I was then told that student accounting had to credit my account. When I called student accounting, I was then told that the parking and transportation office had never sent over the credit. So when I called back from my number I was sent directly to voicemail. So I called from another number and she answered and told me that its a process and the person is working from home that handles the credits to send to student accounting. I asked why she had sent my number to voicemail and was told that she had to answer the phone for people with real problems. This is completely unprofessional and to me, my money is a real problem. They are the ones that charged me wrong, this wasn't my screw up, it's theres. I was told a manager would be calling me, but I seriously doubt that will happen. It makes me want to return the permit entirely and not deal with this office and get someone to drive me to class.

Hopefully you don't misplace your parking permit because they will make you drop another $300 for a new one! :) Replacements should be an option after spending an unnecessary amount of money.

The first few years I went to UAB it wasn’t terrible. There was definitely fighting over parking spaces but if you timed things correctly then it wouldn’t be that bad. The last 2 years have been a disaster on their part though. With the closure of lots, they have essentially made it impossible to get parking unless you get to class an hour early and if you have a job and family like I do then it makes it extremely difficult to even be able to park. This particular semester I did not buy a pass because I am only here for one semester and I would have had to pay $240 for a full year pass to a lot that is nowhere near my classes, which in previous years I was able to buy a half year pass (usually around the price of $70) and I could park in most any lot that had space instead of being restricted to a specific zone. It is already expensive to pay for books and tuition, and I understand that people need to be paid but the inflation from these people have gotten ridiculous. From the inflation of the initial price of the parking pass, to the actual price per parking ticket, and to the additional charges if you do not pay them right away makes people who struggle with money have so much difficulty being able to afford it all. My first semester back in 2013 I paid $130 for a full year parking pass and that has almost doubled and the restrictions of where I am able to park are ridiculously narrow despite the higher price. I believe when I started going here the price was $5 a ticket but now it is $25 and just goes up almost weekly. The zoning system with the lots is complete garbage compared to the previous general parking pass because you are lucky if the lot you get is anywhere close to where you need them to be and the “solution” of the busses is an absolute joke. Last year I was stuck with a lot on the other side of the interstate where if I had to walk back to my car I would be going under a bridge and there has in fact been times I was confronted by a homeless man that was being confrontational and because of UAB’s poor planning I couldn’t even attempt to stay safe. There are no help beacons on that route and the only one that I see is on the other side of a fence that I would have to hop to even use. Arguably though, there are always ways around being screwed with lot location but with how much things changed from years before, this time around it caught me off guard along with so many other students. Price and lot vacancy is not my main issue though, that is just something that needs to be out there for future students to see. What also makes them pretty terrible is their bus system and the total attitude of most of their employees. More times than not I get incredibly rude people to talk to in the office and on the phone that I could care less for. I understand that people probably don’t always talk with manners to them but it does not mean that you can’t be at least polite to the people who are not causing problems. The bus drivers are hit or miss. Occasionally I will have someone that is nice and pleasant but most of the times I have people with bad attitudes or people that are too busy chatting with coworkers. On some occasions the people are chatting for so long that they have made me late for class. There have been times that the bus stopped running earlier than it should leaving me to walk in the dark after hours which I am very much not comfortable with. I normally had to attempt to leave class early to ensure that I had a ride and I pay way too much for these classes to be missing them over busses that are run through the college and should know when the last classes of the day runs through. I have had drivers that drove absolutely recklessly, cutting people off and taking corners fast where it was slinging the people in the bus. I even had one lady that had her phone out watching tv while driving the bus. Overall UAB transportation sucks and I will be glad to graduate and be free from the terrible system they created.

I am tired of using the UAB parking facilities. Your system is horrible. For the second day in a row I am stuck in a parking lot for 20+ minutes due to the incompetent parking system on 15th street and university by the 7th Avenue parking deck. Yesterday the card reader was broken and since it was Sunday I and several other cars had to wait over 20 minutes for security to come. Some people got tired of waiting and drove through the gate. Today is even worse and I have now sat here for 35 minutes and counting. First of all, you shouldn’t be charging people on the weekends for parking and the gate should be open. Second of all, you need this ridiculous and ineffective parking situation fixed! Make more exits, have a pay booth, have a pre-pay option, etc. In short, DO SOMETHING!!!! By the time I get out of here my validated parking will not be any good and that is not ok. People have appointments and places to be. Extremely poor service.