Evaluating Ticketing Strategies for Parking Compliance on University Campuses

Universities play a crucial role in alleviating students’ financial burdens to ensure that the cost of education remains manageable. Parking fines, though often overlooked, contribute to these ancillary costs. While existing literature explores the monetary effects and compliance rates of digital and physical ticketing systems, a significant gap remains in understanding how these methods specifically affect university settings. This study aims to fill that gap by assessing the effectiveness of ticketing practices in reducing parking violations on university campuses, with a focus on the role of warning tickets in promoting compliance and the financial implications of transitioning from digital to physical ticketing methods. The methodology involved comprehensively analyzing 5 years of parking violation data collected from a university campus, applying chi‐square and two‐sample z ‐tests, and developing a random forest model. The results show that warning tickets significantly reduce the incidence of repeat violations, making them an effective nonpunitive strategy. Additionally, the transition from digital to physical ticketing methods led to a reduction in multiple violations and a decrease in the average cost per violator by $25. Physical tickets were found to have a stronger deterrent effect due to their immediacy and visibility. The study provides an evidence‐based decision framework to help universities calibrate enforcement design choices under budget and equity constraints.