To see a video on students’ opinions of Easy Streets, click here.
When Ashley Lowenhaupt was a freshman at the University, she could drive to class and park almost anywhere. Sometimes she was lucky enough to park in front of her building. But that luxury is long gone.The Easy Streets campaign was implemented in summer 2007. And during its first complete year, the program helped decrease traffic and car accidents on campus. But many students still see Easy Streets as an inconvenience.”It’s harder to find spaces, to park and get to class on time,” said Lowenhaupt, biology senior. “It’s much safer for pedestrians because there are no students running stop signs.”BY THE NUMBERSEasy Streets has quickly become a familiar name around campus after only one year. Though many students dislike the program, it has accomplished many of its original goals.Gary Graham, director of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, said Easy Streets’ success has been surprising to some people. He said the number of vehicles on campus is down 60 percent. Traffic accidents on campus are also down. There were 466 accidents on campus from September 2006 to September 2007. That number decreased to 432 from September 2007 to September 2008, said Maj. Helen Haire, LSUPD spokeswoman.Haire said the number of accidents on campus has decreased, but the number of accidents around  campus has increased”Accidents happen where there is traffic,” Haire said. Safety was always the first priority, Graham said. Before Easy Streets, students and cars on campus caused gridlock as classes changed. “It’s a lot safer because if I’m late for class, and I have to run across the street, I don’t have to worry about being hit by a car,” said Diana Anunda, theater freshman.Haire said she has seen more people crossing the streets outside of crosswalks and said students should still be wary of cars.”It would be safer if people actually used the crosswalks,” said Todd Landry, petroleum engineering sophomore.There has also been a nearly 50 percent decrease in the number of tickets issued. About 60,000 tickets were given in the 2006-07 school year, but that number was cut in half last year, with only about 30,000 tickets given out. Graham said his department does not factor tickets into its budget since the number changes yearly.”The system is pretty good at stopping kids from parking illegally since they can’t get past the gates,” Lowenhaupt said.THE IDEA FOR EASY STREETSA task force was set up in 2004 to look at parking and traffic statistics and see what could be done to reduce traffic congestion on campus. Graham said they looked at building new parking lots, renovating existing lots and shutting down streets. They researched several   other schools’ parking systems.”We looked at other schools to try and decide what we liked about their programs and what we wanted to include in ours,” Graham said. The four booths and five supplementary gates of Easy Streets were designed to enforce streets that were already restricted. Graham said signs were not keeping people off these restricted streets, and they decided to use the technology to control traffic.”You have to look at what you can do first,” Haire said. “Obviously you can’t restrict Highland Road, but you can restrict the interior of campus.”Easy Streets was created partially to promote alternative transportation. The bus system was larger before Easy Streets was in place, but the buses got stuck in the traffic and could not travel their routes on time.Graham said there seems to be more bikes on campus.The Easy Streets booths, gates and readers cost an estimated $1.32 million. The money came from an increase in the parking portion of student fees, which Graham said were very low compared to other schools.The increase was intended to put the University’s parking fees on average with other schools. Student fees were increased from $39 in 2004 and will reach $100 next fall. Faculty fees were increased to between $250 and $500.—-Contact Ellen Zielinski at [email protected]