Save Money on Tickets by Using Athens Ohio Parking Rentals

Parking regulations in Athens, Ohio are relatively strict for a college town. First, there’s the 24-hour parking rule, which means your car cannot be parked in the same spot on the street anywhere in the city for more than 24 hours. (The law started being actively enforced in the late 1980s to combat the proliferation of storage parking in close-in Athens neighborhoods – when dorm-dwelling students would park their cars in a hard-to-get on-street parking space for several weeks at a time.) The city of Athens employs a full-time officer whose main job is to enforce this rule, and they do so with a vengeance. At your Athens rental housing, parking across the sidewalk in your driveway is also prohibited, even if the car is only partially blocking the walk. Blocking somebody’s driveway can get you towed, and the fine can be hundreds of dollars. Parking enforcement is big business in this town. That’s why so many OU students who choose to bring their car to Athens decide to rent their own parking space. The same reality applies for parking in Columbus near OSU.

The Convenience of Your Own Parking Space

Krause Rental Properties offers Athens, Ohio parking rentals for prices starting at $300 per year. Other parking lots are leased for $400 or $500 annually, depending on their proximity to campus and popular uptown locations. This convenience lets you park your car safely without having to worry about moving it to avoid a ticket. And during popular weekends like Halloween, Homecoming or Parents Weekends, you’ve always got a spot, even when the entire state arrives on your porch ready to party. (We’re very much counting on all these events returning to OU and Athens once we’re past the pandemic.)

So You Got a Ticket; What’s Next?

Whatever you do, don’t ignore it. The city of Athens can get aggressive when it comes to parking enforcement. That being said, they can be reasonable if you work with them and don’t “cop” an attitude. Call the Parking Enforcement Office and ask to speak to whoever wrote the ticket. You might be able to talk your way out of it if you have a legitimate excuse. “About once a day someone calls or comes to APD to speak to an officer about a ticket,” Capt. Ralph Harvey, supervisor of APD’s Parking Enforcement Division, told The Athens NEWS in 2015 (though the situation doubtlessly hasn’t changed since then). “It’s about a 50/50 split; sometimes (the ticket is) voided, sometimes it’s not.”

But if you can’t get the ticket dismissed, pay it as soon as possible. Tickets can substantially increase if not paid within five days. Place the ticket and the exact amount in the courtesy envelope and deposit it in the yellow courtesy boxes located on various meters throughout the metered parking area. You can also pay by credit card, but you’ll get hit with an additional fee. The best approach is to just suck it up and pay your ticket, then take steps to avoid getting any more at your Athens Ohio rental housing.

Changes to Parking Regs in 2019

In 2019, the city of Athens did substantially modernize its parking meter program, with meters now able to take both cash and credit cards. In the uptown area, depending on the area where the meters are located, you can have anywhere from a 15-minute window of time in high-use areas, to two hours. One tried-and-true strategy for parking, if you drive your car uptown after normal business hours, is to park in nearby university lots that allow free public parking after 5 p.m. Read the signs in these parking lots carefully to make sure it’s OK.

Beware of Parking Regs in Columbus, Too!

Krause Rental Properties also offers top-notch rental housing near OSU in Columbus, and if anything, Columbus parking regulations are stricter than those in Athens (and fighting them a good deal more impersonal). Talk to your neighbors about what they’ve dealt with in regard to parking rules.