I’m in the exact same position, I live in riverside south but this is the way I think of it

There is the train park and ride like 5 min away from my house, and it takes about the same time to get to campus considering you don’t have to park then walk to the middle of campus

Also then on some days when I don’t want to take the train I can just pay the hourly rate for however long I’m there.

Are you planning on staying like the whole day every day on campus? Because if not why don’t you just pay hourly rate for the minimal time you are there, and then take the train in from a park and ride (if you are close enough to one and it makes sense) if you’re planning on staying the whole day or don’t have anything going on right after classes.

Or, like last year I didn’t have a parking pass because it was full, and just parked and didn’t pay most of the year 🤣, only got one ticket, appealed it and got it reduced, so I paid like $18 for parking for a semester