Parking & Transportation relocates to Kittredge St.

By D. Lyn Hunter, Public Affairs

22 January 2003 | After 25 years in temporary offices, the campus Parking & Transportation department will soon have a home of its own. Beginning Monday, Feb. 24, six units currently scattered among three locations will set up shop at 2150 Kittredge St., near Oxford St.

The new digs — located just west of the campus — will house Parking Permit and Citation Services, Special Event Parking, Alternate Transportation, and the Office of the Director. The customer-service operation at 2543 Channing Way will close on Tuesday, Feb. 25, and the building will later be demolished to make way for student housing.

The Kittredge location will provide one-stop shopping for faculty and staff who need to purchase parking permits and bicycle licenses, pay or appeal citations, or obtain alternate-transportation information. Employees can also purchase mass-transit tickets there, eliminating the need to visit the Berkeley TRiP Commute Store on Center St.

In addition to seven customer-service windows, the new space will feature six computer workstations, which customers can use to fill out online forms or purchase parking permits. This will greatly reduce the lines at the parking office at the beginning of the semester and on the first of each month.

“Having us all under one roof will not only enhance our internal communication and coordination,” says Mark Miller, associate director of Parking & Transportation, “but will also improve the speed and efficiency of our customer service.”

In addition to assembling all customer-service staff in the same spot, he adds, they are also being cross-trained to better respond to the parking and transportation needs of the campus community.

The office is near mass-transit hubs in downtown Berkeley, including BART, AC Transit, and the Bear Transit campus shuttle service. There is a free one-hour parking lot across the street, and campus parking just a block away (at the Bancroft/Fulton lot).

The move, according to Miller, is in keeping with the university’s Strategic Academic Plan, which seeks to relocate certain business and administrative departments off-campus.