Commuter students purchased a total of 3,760 parking passes for the spring 2026 semester, including 2,548 all-day Central Campus passes according to Associate Director of Parking and Transportation Services Matthew Beckwith.
Commuter permits include Central Campus lots, Border lots, Alpine Garage, 500 series permits and motorcycle parking, although the 500 series permits are no-cost to students and, therefore, not represented in the total.
Students can access the parking map to determine which lots are covered by which passes.
Most permits are split between all-day and evening permit types. Evening permits allow parking after 4 p.m. Monday through Thursurday and all day on Friday.
There are also Fridays only, M/W/F and T/R/F — where ‘R’ represents Thursdays — Central Campus passes.
Central Campus parking spaces allow UCCS to sell 2.3 permits per space to maintain crowded, but not overcrowded, lots, according to Beckwith.
“What we do is we limit based off of historical data, what we’ve sold in the past, and, what we do on a daily basis, is monitor the lots to see how full they are,” Beckwith said.
Data is not collected on the other lots.
Students with low emissions, fuel efficient vehicles can apply for a LEFE permit, which is added to their purchased pass and allows them to park in reserved spaces.
Z permits exist for disabled persons, in the case that ADA-compliant (The Americans with Disabilities Act) spaces are unavailable. Z permit spaces are nearer to campus facilities but lack ADA requirements, like ramps and loading zones.
These passes are available only after signing a waiver that acknowledges the non-compliance.
“What we found is that most folks that would need an ADA accommodation mostly needed it for closeness to their building, not necessarily for [ADA-compliant features],” Beckwith said.
Passes typically don’t sell out during the spring semester due to a less busy beginning to the semester than fall, but, in the event they do, students can join a waitlist. All students on the waitlist will eventually receive a parking pass.
“Last fall semester, we were able to fully release that wait list after, I think, two weeks into the semester. The year before that, I think it took six or seven weeks for us to fully release the wait lists,” Beckwith said.
Parking services is an auxiliary unit, meaning it’s funded soley through the revenue it generates. Permit pricing is based on mandatory bond payments that ensure all lots comply with state regulations and the cost of repairing and building new lots, according to Beckwith.
“We have to be able to set a price point that is as low as possible for the people that we’re serving but also that allows us to pay our bills and continue providing the service,” he said.
Breakdown of passes sold
- 2,548 all-day Central Campus passes at $250 each
- 184 evening Central Campus passes at $96 each
- 325 M/W/F Central Campus passes at $159 each
- 330 T/R/F Central Campus passes at $159 each
- 29 Friday-only Central Campus passes at $31 each
- 128 all-day Alpine Garage passes at $159 each
- Nine evening Alpine Garage passes at $60 each
- 193 all-day Border Lot passes at $159 each
- Seven evening Border Lot passes at $60 each
- Seven motorcycle passes at either $40 or $64 each
Students can complete a parking services survey to inform future decisions and improvements. Mountain Metro bus passes are available at no additional cost according to previous Scribe reporting.
Students can complete a parking services survey to inform future decisions and improvements.
A packed parking lot. Photo via The Scribe archive.