I will be a freshman this fall in UC Davis living in the residential halls. I am very excited for choosing to live on campus, but the only thing that is bothering me and making me regret a little is the fact that I have to appeal for a parking permit. One of the reasons I need a car is because I live in sacramento and I will probably work on weekends and part time during weekdays. The appeal says that work obligations is an invalid reason to appeal. My other reason is that my parents are pretty sick and I want to go home when I can to help them, but I am not sure that is a valid reason. Is there a way to get away with parking at UC Davis? I know there are old threads about parking around the campus in unrestricted areas but those are old threads and I am not sure if they are still true. Also, I do not know how to ride a bike.
My dd goes to Davis and has a car, but she still uses the bus and her bike. She has to.
She keeps her car at her apartment complex, which has limited parking, but is better than her last apartment who just towed everyone!
The problem with getting a parking permit is that there really isn’t anywhere to park. Even if you had a permit, you wouldn’t find any parking in the lots, on the street, “downtown”, businesses, nowhere! Yes, the on campus LOTs are packed! I really don’t think a permit would help you find parking on campus since most spaces are reserved for Staff.
My dd takes the free in-town bus to the campus and then picks up her bike to ride to her classes. There are bike shops all over Davis, including the one on campus. I’m sure they have bike riding lessons. Everyone bikes there, yes, even the elderly professors, in suits, bike to their classes.
You may want to call the parking services people and tell them that you are the primary caregiver for your medically frail parents. Be ready to back it up with a letter from your parents’ physician. You know that you can get a temporary handicapped placard from the state, which allows caregivers to park near dr’s office buildings. You need to contact the Eldercare services in Sacramento, and get the paperwork as well as the MDs signature. You won’t be able to use it on campus, but it should help at the Dr.s office and in getting a permit.
You really don’t need a car for on campus. I personally only know a couple people that have a car and they still bike or bus to campus.
What you can do, assuming you don’t end up getting the permit, is park on the streets near campus and move your car often enough to not get ticketed. People do that a lot near Cuarto. I’d avoid downtown in this case though, because my understanding is that they’re really strict with parking enforcement in that area of town.
As far as riding a bike, I didn’t learn how to ride until I came up here; a roommate and one of my floormates used the underground parking area in Cuarto to teach me. Even now, I usually prefer taking the bus to campus and walking around campus. I’ve only had issues with being on time when I had back to back classes completely across campus, or if something really unusual was going on in general (heavy rain, bike traffic being more than normal, my normal shortcuts being blocked, etc). You learn the shortcuts around campus pretty quickly, and in some cases it’s actually faster for me to walk somewhere because I can cut through certain areas that I’d have to plan my bike route around.
In any case, you probably don’t want to be biking the first couple weeks if you can avoid it. It’s a mess. Usually by week 3 it’s cleared up enough to not be as much of a hassle, so if you do decide to learn to bike I’d avoid actually biking to class until at least then.