Campus to launch vehicle registration system this semester

BY SARAH EL SAFTY AND SAFAA MAGDY

A new vehicle registration system is to be implemented on campus this semester in an effort to properly utilize the parking lots and reorganize campus accessibility.

Security Office Senior Director Mokhtar Shalaby has confirmed that this system  would require all vehicles entering campus to be registered online; this includes cars with parking permits or daily parking tickets, and those operated by a driver.

Shalaby explained that the new system serves two purposes. The first allows security personnel to know how many cars have entered campus while the second allows them to know how many cars have left campus.

“This system will allow us to know the largest number of cars we can have on campus [at any given time] and whether the parking lots need extension. Also, improving the system will allow us to locate the most crowded parking lots on campus and therefore use red and green lights to indicate which are empty and/or occupied,” Shalaby told The Caravan.

Vehicles will access two lanes at each gate: The right lane will be for registered cars with permits while the left lane will be for cars without permits that will need to purchase a ticket. This will ease the flow of vehicles into campus and decrease congestion.

The system is also designed to enhance safety on campus.

“Once we had a car parked on campus for four months and we were suspicious. In order to determine the owner of the car and make sure the car was not stolen and totally safe, we had to go through some really long procedures. The new vehicle registration system will allow us to shorten such a process,” said Shalaby.

The online registration process will require students to fill in their car plate number and their personal contact information in case of an emergency. Students will be allowed to have more than one car.

“The system will be launched by the middle of October, but that is a conservative estimate,” said Amro Ali, a Senior System Analyst who is part of the team developing the new procedures at the IT department.

So far,  only a demo of the system has been used at Gate Two to test for effifiency and any prospective bugs.

Shalaby is urging the AUC community to quickly register their vehicles once the system is fully developed because this will ease the process at the gates and avoid any possible delays.

Shalaby believes that this system will improve AUC’s image, but added that “it is the safety and the security of campus that is our first and foremost priority”.