The UC Santa Barbara Transportation and Parking Services updated their parking policy last month, prohibiting first-years from applying for on-campus parking permits.

New parking policy prohibits first-year students from receiving parking permits on campus. Wesley Haver / Daily Nexus

The policy change is permanent and stems from the limited parking space on campus, according to the Transportation and Parking Services (TPS). This restriction is on all types of permits, including guest and daily passes, as the TPS ePermit Portal will “not allow first-year students to purchase any permit-type based on their class year.” This means the policy still applies to students with enough credits to be classified as a sophomore.

“Parking capacity on campus is limited. In order to prioritize those that need to commute, the campus adopted a policy that restricts first-year residential students from storing a car on campus,” UCSB media spokesperson Kiki Reyes said.

UCSB and Isla Vista are facing a parking and housing shortage. Only around 20% of continuing students live in on-campus housing. According to the 2024-2025 campus profile report, 39% of students live in university-owned housing, 42% live in I.V. and the rest live in other locations. This is up from 2019-2020, where 38% of students lived in university-owned housing and 34% lived in I.V.

TPS recommends students use other “free and low-cost transportation options,” such as the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) bus system, MTD Wave and Zipcar car share. For long-distance travel, they urged students to utilize Coastal Express, Amtrak bus connections and FlixBus.

A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the May 1, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.