Parking gates at Greenbriar Lot should improve security

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

Security concerns have prompted Rice University to put up gates at the only major campus parking lot that does not already have them, according to Director of Administrative Services Eugen Radulescu.

Though faculty, staff and students are currently required to pay for parking passes for the Greenbriar Lot, located between Greenbriar Drive and Rice Stadium, it remains the only major campus lot drivers can enter at will.

That creates a problem, according to the Rice University Police Department (RUPD). Open parking lots become a “supermarket” for those who steal cars, steal from cars and seek to victimize people as they come and go from an area that is largely out of sight from the street and the main campus. When Rice gated its parking lots several years ago, crime in those lots dropped, according to RUPD.

“It’s a huge lot, and very hard to manage without being gated,” Radulescu said. “It has approximately 2,000 parking spaces, and we have quite a few people from different places who park there.”

Visitors to the campus who park in Greenbriar will be charged $1 per entry per day, payable by credit card only. The hope is that having drivers pay a nominal fee — and having to stop to swipe a card at entry and exit — will be a disincentive to those tempted to enter the lot to break into cars or stake out potential victims.

“If they can’t drive into the lot, break into a car and get out, criminals won’t be drawn to Rice in the first place,” said Rice Police Chief Bill Taylor. “That should make the area around Rice safer, because these people won’t be driving through the neighborhoods to get here.”

Gates will be installed at entrances 13A and 13B on Greenbriar Drive and at the unnumbered entrance on Rice Boulevard opposite Whitney Street. Max Amery, Rice’s senior facilities engineer and project manager, said that the gates themselves would be placed about 50 feet in from the street, so cars entering the lot would be less likely to block traffic.

Rice faculty, staff and students who currently pay to park in the lot will be issued “prox” cards, like those used for other campus lots. The university announced earlier this year that parking fees would not be raised for the 2010 fiscal year beginning July 1.

Construction of the gates could begin as soon as next weekend and is expected to be complete in 30 to 45 days, in time for the fall semester. Digging and concrete pouring will be done on the weekend as much as possible to minimize disruptions.

The gates will be open for Rice football games and other campus events.