The Department of Public Safety parking division wants to increase parking fines and the cost of parking passes. It hopes to get the increase approved at the Board of Regents meeting in May. There are good points to make both for and against DPS relating to the larger parking issue — and we have our own — but for now the issue in contention is funding DPS.

For the sake of argument, let us agree that DPS needs more cash to fund its projects. We cannot, however, accept the idea outright that this funding must come from an increase in fines and permits. There must be a way for DPS to cut its costs, and the first and most obvious route lies in its vehicles. The DPS parking division has a fleet of shiny trucks that get poor gas mileage.

It is not unreasonable to say that this is a waste of money. Now that the weather is warming up, the contrast is even more evident. We can understand wanting to keep warm in the dead of winter, but not in a fuel-inefficient vehicle, and even less so approaching flip-flop weather. The case crumbles further still, considering the high cost of gasoline.

As an alternative, the parking division could get some low-cost bicycles and in no time flat make up the cost of all that $2.10 gasoline. Moreover, maintenance costs on the vehicles would, by comparison, evaporate. The bike method is what Jimmy John’s delivery people used to do, even on the harshest of winter nights. We fondly remember the bike-riding delivery hero, cutting through blinding blizzards, delivering warm sandwich goodness. (It raises an interesting question of who is more capable under adverse conditions — sandwich artists or those committed to protect and serve. We’ll let DPS clear up that issue.)

Seeing one’s sandwich arrive by bike — against all odds — was part of the appeal. Similarly, seeing DPS roll around in flashy, gas-guzzling vehicles — especially now that the weather is shaping up — is cause for distrust. Like every other department at the university, DPS must take a serious approach to cutting costs. It all adds up, and an unnecessary rise in parking fines because of wasteful practices will stoke resentment within the university community.

As such, DPS must justify to the community its expenditure, especially its taste for inefficient and expensive transportation.

Until DPS provides a full account of its own practices, we have no choice but to oppose the requested rise in fines and permit costs. Until the community is given the honest account it deserves, we recommend the regents deny DPS’ request to increase fines and permit costs.