We, the graduate students of Duke Medical School, have created this petition to show support for changes to the parking rules for the service lots outside the Nanaline Duke and Carl Sands buildings. For the reasons outlined in this document, we are pushing to allow for unticketed parking in service spaces and loading docks from 5 pm to 7 am weekdays and all day on weekends. Since service vehicles and loading vehicles do not occupy these spaces after hours, we are asking for the privilege to park close to our work, in these unused spaces, without the worry of receiving a ticket.

This petition arose in response to increased ticketing in these areas that disproportionately affect graduate students and staff whose work often requires them to stay after 5 pm and work on-site over weekends. This can have devastating effects on students performing scholarly work as the ticket is about 5% of a student’s monthly paycheck. Parking in garages after hours can be burdensome for students going into lab for short periods of time or for those students without a parking pass. Additionally, the Bureau of Justice statistics has found 1 in 10 property crimes occurs in parking garages, which raises the issue of safety particularly in the winter months when days are shorter.