I drive a pink 2018 Mazda 6. In other words, I drive a bright pink Barbie car, and I love it. 

But you know who doesn’t love it? Fresno State Traffic Operations, that’s who. Just kidding, I don’t have any actual proof that they don’t like my car, but the number of parking tickets I received last semester is ridiculous. And for what? All because I refuse to park miles away, because let’s be real, there’s no way to park close to your classes unless you park in a yellow lot. I also tend to be late, so walking 45 minutes after parking just isn’t something I can afford to do nearly ever. 

Since April 2025, I have received a total of five parking tickets, totaling about $500. And actually, as I logged on to the parking citation portal, I discovered that $214 is from an open ticket from Sept. 4, 2025. I thought I had paid everything off, but I guess I was wrong.

I’ll admit that the tickets have all been fair, and because I personally chose to break the rules. But that’s not the point. The point is that parking tickets are dumb, and everyone should be allowed to park everywhere. Not only that, ticket prices are outrageous and inconsistent. Sometimes people just get a warning, sometimes the tickets are $40, but I’ve gotten tickets for $100.

There are several perks to being with the media, and one of those perks is designated parking. At Fresno State, there are two designated media spots in P30 near the Resnick Student Union. And do you know what The Collegian is? Media. But not according to the university, at least not when it comes to parking.

The media spots are just a couple of hundred feet from The Collegian office, yet we are not allowed to use them. 

Many Collegian staffers have received tickets for parking in the media spots, but it’s always a gamble because sometimes we get ticketed and sometimes we don’t. And again, the prices fluctuate. 

But then, a couple of months ago, I thought I cracked the code. I got a part-time production job at a TV station in Fresno, and I received a badge from it. It had my name, position and the TV station name and logo on it. So I thought, “Perfect, now I’m ‘real media.’” 

I started parking in media with that badge on my dashboard, and guess what? It worked, no ticket. At least not immediately. 

I got about two weeks of parking there. Then, one day, the media parking sign was changed from “media parking only” to “invited media only, enforced 24 hours,” and I had a big fat ticket on my car. I guess seeing my pink car parked there every day tipped them off. 

When I say my pink car is targeted, I mean it’s targeted. There have been cases where my coworkers parked in media and did not receive tickets, but if I parked there, I got a ticket, because my car is recognizable and they know they’re guaranteed a ticket with me. The officers must look at my car like a prize. 

Every time someone gets ticketed, it’s just more money in the university’s pocket. I just don’t understand why they’re so hungry to hand out tickets, but more importantly, why students cannot park in the yellow lots. The university handed out 5,277 parking tickets in Fall 2025, according to Derek Brantley of Fresno State Traffic Operations. 

It seems completely unfair that only staff and faculty get access to those lots. Even some members of Associated Students, Inc. get access to yellow parking passes, but The Collegian never does. At the very least, there should be meters in the yellow lots so students can opt to pay hourly rates for close parking, and an option for a daily yellow pass. 

Whatever. I’ve stopped parking in media, and found another solution, or so I thought. My friend told me that someone she knows who works at the Student Health and Counseling Center said that the “appointment only” spots in front of the center are almost always unused and basically free close parking. 

My friends parked there quite a few times to try it, and it worked, so I decided to try it, too. Guess what? I got a ticket. And you know why? Because someone called and complained about a pink car parked outside. Be so for real, what harm was my car doing? If anything, it was just beautifying the parking lot! 

I had to stop parking there, too. So finally, after so many parking tickets, I decided to surrender, actually park in a green lot and utilize the $93 parking permit I purchased at the start of the semester. 

That being said, I love my car. Truly, it’s one of my most prized possessions. But driving pink comes at a cost. I can no longer go places and not be spotted; people stop and stare (which I do enjoy) and I can no longer consistently break parking rules because my car is not discreet at all. 

The underlying issue here is that parking tickets are inconsistent, both in cost and in the way they’re handed out. There should be a standard rate for parking tickets, no matter where they occur, unless transparently stated otherwise, and I shouldn’t be guessing when I may or may not get a ticket.