You should probably start worrying about getting hit by a car while walking through the LSU Quad.
Well, maybe don’t worry — but know that it’s a possibility.
There have been at least three instances of LSU students driving their cars into the Quad. The most recent incident occurred in 2020 when a driver got lost and accidentally made their way into the area before being escorted out by LSUPD.
The driver asked pedestrians where they could find the nearest street, according to @overheard_lsu on Twitter. Pictures and videos of the lost driver quickly spread on social media and left many people asking the same question: “How did they get their car in the Quad?”
I decided I would find the answer. Obviously, I cannot drive my real car through the Quad.
Instead, I created a model of my car to pull through the quad to see if my car would fit and where. By model, I mean a rectangle on roller skates.
I collected tent poles from my parents’ house, roller skates from my roommate and duct tape from my friend – all the conventional components of a Reveille story.
I measured my car, and it came out to be 15 feet long, 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Then I measured out the tent poles to make a rectangle with the same measurements as my car. I added duct tape to hold the tent poles together.
Finally, and most crucially, every car needs wheels. The car outline needs to roll just like a car since I would not be able to pick up my actual, real car if I needed to go down steps to get into the Quad.
I tied roller skates to the four corners of the car outline, and then I had a realistic car model to test with.
The best location for a car to enter the Quad seemed to be the parking lot between Nicholson Hall and Coates Hall. There are other entrances that would work, but most were harder to get to or involved driving over stairs and curbs.
The parking lot between Nicholson Hall and Coates Hall has a ramp that leads to a wide sidewalk, making it almost seem like LSU wants people to drive into the Quad. 
After carefully, and sweatily, bringing the car model to the entrance between Nicholson Hall and Coates Hall, it was time for the final test.
I set the model down and slowly dragged it through the columns, along the sidewalk and down the handicap ramp, all while getting confused looks from bystanders.
My “car” fit perfectly. The model made it down the ramp and into the parking lot without needing to take any stairs or hopping any curbs.
It’s most likely that the people who drove into the Quad over the years took this entrance, the walkway between Nicholson and Coates, as this route looks the most like “You can keep driving this way,” although it still seems obvious that this isn’t the case. 
Do not actually do this with your real car. It is illegal, you will get in trouble and my editor will yell at me.

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Jayden Nguyen

Will Nickel evaluates his "quad car" model on Monday, Sept. 12 at LSU's Parade Grounds.