Opinion: Parking Wars: Out-of-State Plates and Amherst’s Identity Crisis
Commuter parking congestion on Lincoln Avenue. Photo: Jennifer Taub
Walk down Fearing Street on a Friday night and you’ll see it: cars jammed into driveways, spilling onto sidewalks, littering curbs like confetti after a parade. Out-of-state plates dominate — New Jersey, Connecticut, New York — each one a reminder that Amherst’s streets have become overflow lots for UMass.
Residents complain. Councillors nod. Developers shrug. Meanwhile, those of us who live here year-round circle the block like it’s a mall parking lot on Christmas Eve.
One proposal gaining traction: limit parking and tax out-of-state cars. The logic is seductive. Students bring their cars, clog our streets, and contribute to congestion. A $300 annual fee discourages the extra vehicles, reduces traffic, and — best of all — funnels revenue back into town infrastructure. Landlords who pack in student tenants but offer no parking suddenly can’t freeload on the backs of permanent residents. Bonus points if fewer cars means lower carbon emissions, especially if paired with expanded PVTA routes and safer bike lanes.
But here’s the rub: policy is never clean. Enforcement is messy. Out-of-state plates don’t always belong to students — sometimes it’s visiting family or a cousin borrowing the driveway for the weekend. And what about equity? Wealthier students living in luxury apartments can skip cars and Uber everywhere. It’s the lower-income students — the ones driving old hand-me-downs from home who feel the squeeze. And landlords? They’re not eating the cost. They’ll just pass it on in rent.
Take Emily, a student from New Jersey. She drives a 2008 Honda Civic because it’s cheaper than Ubering everywhere. She’s taxed $300. She fumes. Her wealthy classmates living in Fieldstone apartments don’t pay a dime, even though their presence drives up rents more than her old car ever could. Meanwhile, her landlord pockets the same rent and offers zero parking solutions.
So yes, parking limits and car taxes could bring relief and also spark resentment, create legal headaches, and punish the very students least able to absorb the costs.
Amherst’s eternal dilemma: every “solution” for congestion, housing, or healthcare exposes deeper contradictions. State mandates, developer profits, student realities, resident frustrations collide on our streets, our zoning maps, and, yes, our parking lots.
We can’t Uber our way out of this. If Amherst truly wants to reduce congestion and emissions while protecting residents, it has to think bigger: invest in transit, push UMass to house more students, and design policies that don’t scapegoat the easiest targets.
Because in the end, parking isn’t just about cars. It’s about who gets to move freely in Amherst and who gets stuck circling, waiting for a space that may never open up.
Rizwana Khan is a resident of Amherst and a member of the town’s Human Rights Commission.
There absolutely needs to be some work to reduce the volume of student cars associated with UMass for both parking and traffic reasons. There are far too many college age drivers going over the speed limit and driving carelessly around town.
I would contend most of these students have cars for the luxury of it , we need to find ways to increase PVTA capacity and routes to make that less of a choice. I understand a lot of this is out of state transportation to and from UMass, I’d prefer these cars parked to students in a rush driving around.