For Michigan State students, parking on-campus can be difficult, but the struggle doesn’t end for those living off-campus either.
“We have six girls that live here and our driveway only fits five cars, which is kind of a bummer because we always have to find a place to put one of our cars at night,” said Elena Ferman, a senior at MSU.
This makes it even harder to have guests.
“We always have to put them either at a commuter lot, on campus after 6 or even have them park all the way out at Meijer,” said Ferman.
However, MSU Marketing student, Zach Brewer says he has the solution. It’s an app he developed called PRNDL.
“It lets anyone who has a private parking spot rent it out whenever it would go unused. So if your’e gonna be out of town for the weekend or you’re gonna be at work all day, you can rent our your extra parking spot and make some money,” said Brewer.
For those looking for somewhere to park, you can go onto the app, search a location and a GPS will take you to the closest open parking spot to rent.
After spending hundreds of dollars in parking tickets, Brewer said enough is enough.
“I noticed all these reserved parking spots that were wide open and not being used and I was just like ‘well I would pay someone to park there right now,” said Brewer.
The app sets up default rates but leaves the final say up to the renter. This allows those who live closer to campus or the stadium to uncharge.
Ferman says she is looking forward to using the app.
“My mom comes up here a lot of the times for lunch and like it would be really convenient to just go on there and for you know for 3 dollars, which is so much cheaper than having to pay at the parking garages,” said Ferman.
As of right now, the app only allows off-campus parking rentals, but Brewer says on-campus parking is in the works.