Car park management: What’s next? Questions and answers on the introduction of the new system

As already reported, a modern car park management system is being introduced at TU Braunschweig. We have summarised the most important questions and answers.

How did the decision to introduce a car park management system at TU Braunschweig come about?

The issue of car parking has been discussed at the university for a long time. In 2018, the ‘New Mobility at TU Braunschweig’ concept was developed at the suggestion of the Presidential Board, in which TU Braunschweig set itself the goal of analysing and optimising the traffic situation in the entire campus area. This analysis has shown that TU Braunschweig’s own car parks are increasingly being used by external persons, thus increasing the parking pressure among TU members. A situation that is exacerbated by the city’s car park management measures. As a result, a process was started to find a system that meets the requirements of fair and modern car park management. All stakeholders such as the staff council, student representatives and the building commission were involved in this process, which ran for several years.

What has happened so far to implement the system?

As you may have noticed, preparations for the car park management infrastructure have already begun. For example, power connections have been installed at the car park on Konstantin-Uhde-Straße, which will later supply the cameras with power. And at the Mensa car park, the annual closure for tree maintenance work will be used to carry out earthworks for cable ducts there too. The next step will be to install the cameras on the main campus. Work on the infrastructure for the East and North Campuses and the NFF will follow successively in the new year. After the winter break, trial operation will then take place, initially at the main campus.

What happens during trial operation?

At the beginning of 2026, a trial operation will first take place to ensure that the system is working properly. At the same time, a registration system will be set up where users can register their vehicles online and set up payment of the monthly fees. A number of volunteers, including all members of the Executive Committee, have agreed to register their vehicles and pay the fees before the official launch so that the new system can be tested and, if necessary, adjusted before the general launch.

When will the car parks be subject to charges?

The registration system will also be activated for users during the trial period, which will run in the first quarter of 2026. This will allow enough time for all users to register. As soon as it will be possible to register, the information will be announced on the website, here in the magazine and in the newsletter ‘Die Woche’.

As soon as the trial period is over and the system works as desired, it can be put into operation throughout the university – currently planned for the first quarter of 2026.

Why do I have to pay for it at all?

The installation of cameras to protect the TU car parks from third-party parking and the maintenance of the system incurs costs. For legal reasons, TU Braunschweig is not allowed to cover these costs from general budget funds – i.e. taxpayers’ money. Therefore, a charge must be levied on users in order to refinance the infrastructure for car park management.

Have other solutions been considered that would be free of charge for users?

All stakeholders were involved in the process of developing a solution to the car parking problem and a wide range of possible solutions were discussed. For example, the possibility of a barrier system or attaching parking permits to vehicles was considered. However, controlling the TU’s own car park by means of a barrier, through which only vehicles belonging to TU members can pass, or by issuing parking permits would require a considerable amount of manpower. In the latter case, people would have to be employed to check the vehicles. A barrier system, on the other hand, is significantly more expensive to install and also requires an emergency service that is available at all times. Both solutions would be an economic expense that cannot be realised by the university.

Couldn’t the car park system be financed by charges from third-party users?

The TU’s car parks have been made available to the university by the state of Lower Saxony on the condition that they are used for the university’s own purposes. This rules out third-party use in the first instance. Even if the state were to grant permission to rent out car parks to local residents, TU would still have to pay all income to the state. The administrative effort required for this would drive up the costs so much that it would not be justifiable for economic reasons alone.

Irrespective of this, in such a scenario it would also not be possible to ensure that the car parks would be cleared of external users in the morning. Such a scenario is therefore neither readily possible nor practicable.

How much will parking at TU Braunschweig cost me in future?

The monthly fee per user account is €10 per month. Several vehicles can be registered via one user account. For example, car pools can share a user account. However, several vehicles per user account may not be parked in a TU car park at the same time.

Various charging models were analysed when designing the parking management system. It turned out that the chosen model – namely a fee of €10 per month for all status groups – is the most favourable model for everyone. A system that differentiates between individual status groups would result in significantly higher costs, meaning that the status group with the most favourable tariff would still be charged €10 and other status groups would have to pay more.

What about hardship regulations?

The working group and the committees have attached great importance to taking social hardship cases into consideration. Anyone who can provide current proof of the following circumstances can be exempted from the monthly fees:

• the opening of private insolvency proceedings
• receipt of citizen’s allowance to supplement income
• receipt of housing benefit to support housing costs
• receipt of a child supplement for low-income families

Severely disabled persons who are entitled by law to a severely disabled parking permit (orange-coloured German permit or blue EU parking permit) can also be exempt from the fees. This includes people who have a severely disabled person’s pass with the mark ‘aG’ or ‘Bl’, as well as severely disabled people with the marks “G” and ‘B’ and a degree of disability of at least 50.

Other theoretically possible hardship criteria were discussed but rejected due to their lack of significance. For example, the pay group says nothing about the available household income. The significance of the licence plate number is also quite useless in terms of actual dependence on the car.

There is no parking pressure in the car park I use. Why is parking management being introduced there too?

The introduction of parking space management on all campus areas is based on a principle of solidarity and equality for all members of TU Braunschweig and is independent of capacity utilisation figures and parking space shortages at individual locations. Introducing parking space management only in those parts of the university of technology where there is a shortage of parking spaces – for example on the main campus – would put students and employees in the central and highly frequented campus areas at a disadvantage compared to university members who have their place of work and study in less frequented campus areas.

As the fixed costs for car park management remain relatively constant regardless of the number of parking spaces managed, removing individual zones would increase the monthly contribution for the remaining users many times over. This would violate the principle of solidarity and equality, which the university community, not least the staff council and student representatives, consider essential.

What do I have to do now?

First of all, nothing. As soon as it is possible to register vehicles for the system, the information will be announced on the website, here in the magazine and in the newsletter ‘Die Woche’.

Where can I find answers to my questions?

The website on parking management at TU Braunschweig answers questions on the subject and publishes all new information as soon as it is available. If there is a question that is not yet answered there, you can contact parkraumbewirtschaftung@tu-braunschweig.de.