Frequently asked questions

The office is located on the corner of North Virginia Street and 16th Street. It is building #106 on the campus map, located near the 3rd-floor entrance to the West Stadium Parking Complex. Parking and Transportation Services office hours are from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

Location, map and directions to Parking Services

In order to log in to the Parking Services online system you must use your University  NetID, not your NSHE student ID number. Your NetID (Network Identification) is a unique username that is automatically generated for all current students, faculty and staff of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Your NetID will typically be made up of your name. For example, John Smith will have a NetID like jsmith. The username made up of numbers like 8000123456 is an NSHE ID, and can only be used to log into MyNEVADA. You will not know what your NetID is until after it has been activated. Please visit the Office of Information Technology to activate your NetID or for help troubleshooting. Please note that once you activate your NetID, it may take up to 24 hours for the Parking online system to recognize this login.

Citations may be appealed within 15 calendar days from the date the citation was issued. Written appeals may be filed online or in person at the Parking Office; however, a deposit equal to the amount of the fine must be paid prior to submitting the appeal.

Appeals are reviewed by Parking and Transportation Services Department administration. Taken into consideration are warning and citation history, parking permit history, prior parking citation appeals and circumstances as presented in the written appeal.

Refunds can take 3-4 weeks to be processed. It is important to note, however, that the refund will first be applied to any outstanding balance that you have with Parking Services or any other department on campus through the Cashiers Office. Refunds are processed through the Accounts Payable Office in the form of a refund check.

After 5:30 p.m., any valid permit (excluding Circus Circus and Free Friday permits) may park in the Brian J Whalen Parking Complex and lower Silver Zones, except in those areas marked 24/7 enforced.  Before 5:30 p.m., these are reserved for University faculty and staff only. Restrictions are strictly enforced.

The 5:30 p.m. time limit is in place to allow faculty and staff to exit campus and limit congestion around the University.

In order to release a hold, you must first pay the outstanding balance owed to Parking and Transportation Services. Once the balance is paid, please give us a call to notify us that your account is up to date. Holds on current accounts are released each morning. Payments for parking holds cannot be made through the MyNevada system.

Day parking is available at the top of the West Stadium Parking Complex for $7 per day per vehicle.  A daily permit can be purchased at the top of West Stadium in the permit dispenser near the elevator, valid for use in one of the numbered spaces. Additionally, a daily permit can be purchased through the Parking and Transportation Services Office located outside the 3rd-floor entrance at North Virginia and 16th Street.

Hourly parking is also available in various other locations on campus at $2 an hour.  Please see our parking map to pick a location that works best for you.

Please visit Parking Services with your permit and citation so that we can assess the circumstances of the citation being issued. It may be that your permit was not clearly visible to the officer at the time of the citation being issued.

Annual disabled accessible parking permits may be purchased at the Parking and Transportation Services office located at North Virginia and 16th Street. The following items and information are needed when purchasing the permit:

1. A completed parking permit application (Applications are available in our office.)
2. A valid photo ID
3. A DMV issued placard or vehicle registration
4. A DMV "Authorization Letter" indicating ownership of the disabled access placard. (This is not necessary if the vehicle has disabled plates.)

Once your information is on file, you will be able to renew future annual parking permits by mail. In the event that the disabled individual cannot pay the entire permit fee in advance, payment arrangements may be provided.

Temporarily disabled individuals are eligible to purchase a temporary university disabled permit. The same requirements listed for the annual permit above apply to temporarily disabled individuals; however, the expiration date of the temporary disabled parking permit will coincide with the expiration date of the temporary DMV placard.

Disabled visitors may purchase a $5 one-day parking permit at the Parking and Transportation Services office or at a parking permit dispenser in the following locations:

• Level 1 of Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex
• Top Floor of the West Stadium Parking Complex
• Silver 10 parking lot just southeast of the Center for Molecular Medicine
• In the meter parking lot east of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center
• In the meter parking lot east of Lombardi Recreation Center
• Level 1 of the Gateway Parking Complex
• In the parking lot beneath the E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center
• In the southeast corner of the meter parking lot south of Morrill Hall

Daily permits may be used at any disabled parking space throughout the day indicated on the permit. The permit must be displayed on the dash along with a DMV-issued placard.

It is up to the discretion of Parking Services to waive citations. Waiving first citations is not a policy observed by Parking Services.

Warnings are not always issued prior to citations. For a full explanation of the parking rules, please visit our page on Parking Rules and Regulations.

Yellow zones are resident zones. Restrictions are enforced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Permit parking areas require proper permits to be displayed Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., throughout the entire year, unless otherwise specified. Parking areas designated as 'enforced 24 hours per day, 7 days a week' require that an authorized permit to be displayed at all times. These areas include, but are not limited to, Yellow and Orange signed zones.

Short-term parking areas required paid parking Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. throughout the entire year unless otherwise specified.

Parking Services is not affiliated with the City of Reno. Please contact the City of Reno to pay your citation at (775) 334-2293.

Parking at a non-functioning meter will result in citation. Please do not park at meters that are broken.

Please visit the Parking Services office within 30 days of issuance, and we will issue you a refund.

Special exceptions do apply during Winter and Spring breaks and during the summer session. However, there is no "free" parking offered.

Carpool spaces are reserved exclusively for students and staff who carpool to campus daily through 8:00 p.m. In order to park in these spaces, you must have a valid carpool permit.

Parking permits are non-transferable between individuals and may not duplicated. You cannot purchase a permit from anyone other than the Parking Services office. If you did not purchase your permit from the Parking Services office fines in excess of $500 will be issued, in addition to the annual fee of the permit found in use. The original permit holder should contact the Parking Services office for a possible refund for the permit.

Silver permits are valid in the Silver numbered zone designated on the front of the physical permit only. Silver 11 permits are valid on levels 2-4 of the Brian Whalen Parking Complex. Silver 11 permits are not valid on the first floor of the Whalen Complex or within the E. L. Wiegand parking structure (located underneath the E. L. Wiegand Fitness Center). Level 5 is reserved for resident hall students with Yellow 1 parking permits.

University Parking and Transportation Services annually conducts five parking-space availability counts to determine how many spaces are available every hour of the day. The results indicate that on the busiest hour of the busiest day, there are still about 870 spaces available. However, it is also true that many of these available spaces are located in the north of campus, which is relatively inconvenient for those who attend classes, work or live in the south end of campus.

As the University continues to grow, Parking and Transportation Services estimate that by FY22, there may only be an estimated 600 remaining parking permits available to be sold as compared to the 1,336 available today. Most of these available spaces are in the north campus while new residence halls and future University growth will occur in the south.

In January 2023, the Gateway Parking Complex was opened, providing an additional 800 parking spaces to the campus community.

The last parking permit fee increase was 2.5% in August of 2023.

Because the unit is self-supporting, it does not receive any state funding and must cover the increase in operational expenses through the revenue raised from permit sales. Due to increases in routine operating expenses and rising construction costs, additional funding is needed.

Each spring, Parking and Transportation Services will review and consider the impacts of annual, incremental cost increases or decreases to their program.

The shuttle bus service provides a basic service for the campus community. This service operates in one continuous loop around campus from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.

By way of background, the revenue derived from transportation services is not sufficient to cover the expanded service hours provided. As a result, the students of the University were consulted to determine if the expanded hours were important, and if so, would they be willing to pay a fee for the service. Although our students appreciated the expanded shuttle service, in the end, they decided not to fund the expanded hours of operation.

The Contractor, Silver Reserved, and Department Reserved spaces are not turned over several times per day, resulting in reduced revenue from each of these spaces. Similarly, this low ratio applies to the Yellow permits for residence hall students who park their vehicles overnight and essentially have a reserved space available in a specific lot.