Start the fall semester with a clean machine
Free car wash, second TRIP store among offerings

By D. Lyn Hunter, Public Affairs

30 AUGUST 00 | Berkeley faculty and staff can clean the summer vacation dust from their vehicles with a free car wash, courtesy of Touchless Car Wash in Berkeley.

Every central and faculty/staff parking permit holder will receive a coupon for a free "Ultra Car Wash," a $17.95 value. The coupon will be mailed by Parking and Transportation as part of its fall semester welcome-back letter to campus parkers.

To avoid inundating Touchless Car Wash with coupon redemptions, the vouchers will be sent out in two batches - the first half during the week of Sept. 11 and the second the week of Sept. 18. In all, 5,000 coupons will be sent out, with an additional 2,500 going to student permit holders. Total value of the coupons is $131,000.

Touchless Car Wash, open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, is located on the west side of campus at 2176 Kittredge St., near Oxford. The coupons have no expiration date.

The "Ultra Wash" includes both an interior and exterior cleaning of the car, a poly-bond wax treatment, an under-carriage and tire rim wash as well as a rust-guard application.

"This is part of our concentrated effort to become part of the campus community," said Art Davis, who works for Touchless parent company Canadian American Oil. "We currently have contracts with UCPD and Parking and Transportation to wash patrol cars and campus shuttle busses, but we wanted to extend our services to faculty, staff and students as well."

"This is something special we can do for our permit holders," said Kevin Hagerty, a Parking and Transportation manager, who, along with Bud Travers of the Resource Development Office, helped arrange this unusual donation. "It's very generous of the folks at Touchless, and it costs the university absolutely nothing."

The free coupon, said Hagerty, is one of several programs being offered to campus parkers this fall.

Among them: a new Berkeley TRIP commute store at 2535 Channing Way, which, along with the downtown Berkeley location, gives campus employees two TRIP locations to choose from. The store, scheduled to open in early October, will sell discounted BART and AC Transit tickets. For updates, check the Parking and Transportation Web site at www.berkeley. edu/transportation.

The short-term parking pilot program that began last spring continues this fall. The Bowditch Lot accommodates 30 vehicles that can park for up to four hours at a time. The program assists permit holders who need to leave and return to the campus during the day. The lot will close at the end of the year to facilitate construction, but an alternative location is being sought, said Hagerty.

Also, the Student Union Garage has switched to a "pay-at-exit" cashiering operation. The rates will increase with each hour in an effort to discourage long-term parking in the lot. This new structure will assist those wishing to make quick purchases at the ASUC Store or Zellerbach ticket office or attend a short meeting or class.

Attendant parking will continue with a variety of program improvements that were implemented last year. These include improved response time, radio communications, additional customer service training for parking staff, and customer surveys.