Have you ever had one of those extremely busy days when 24 hours didn’t seem like enough time to get everything accomplished? I had one last week when I finally had a break around 2:30 p.m. Elated, I decided to run to the store before my 4 p.m. class. I only needed a few groceries and figured I could be back on campus just in time for class.
But when I entered my car in the East Campus Apartments’ parking lot, I realized how wrong I was.
Traffic was backed up all along East Campus Drive. I assumed this traffic jam was courtesy of the University’s latest bane of students’ existence, Easy Streets. I unsuccessfully attempted to exit the ECA parking lot via the one-way street in front of the Activity Center where my car was parked. I was unable to make a left turn because there were a multitude of cars waiting in a line headed toward the back of ECA’s north side of the parking lot. When I decided not to fight traffic and turn right, I discovered a carpool lane for University High was being routed through ECA’s parking lot.
When I finally got to a point where I could exit the carpool lane, a parking attendant for the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation was very quick to rush toward blocking the exit I was attempting to use. I waved my resident hangtag to indicate I live there, and she begrudgingly moved aside. I then tackled another obstacle to leaving my own apartment complex when I encountered two barricades near Building 9 with signs attached declaring “EXIT ONLY.” The only problem was the barricades were blocking the exit. I placed my car in park and moved the barricades myself while two other parking attendants were sitting in their LSU Traffic truck simply watching me remove the barricades that were blocking my exit from the apartment complex I pay $3,000 per semester to live in.
By this time, I called the parking office to see why there was a carpool lane for an elementary school being routed through my parking lot. I made this phone call while searching for another parking spot, since I now would not have time to go to the store. After being transferred from one department to another, I finally spoke with one employee who, after hearing my complaint, refused to accept a formal complaint and refused to give her name because “[she was] certainly not going to give [her] name to someone who [is] trying to file a complaint.”
After researching the situation, I learned the current plan for the carpool line was developed and implemented this past year by U-High and parking officials. According to Wade Smith, U-High director, approximately 300 third -through fifth-graders at the school are serviced by the carpool lane. The plan was implemented when the new addition to the elementary portion of the school opened, Smith said. Gary Graham, parking office director, confirmed “the layout of the building within the [school’s] site required that the pickup/drop-off point be at this location [in ECA’s parking lot]. The sheer numbers [of the elementary students] preclude using the other entrance that is used for grades K-2.” Graham said, “The parents are to use only Raphael Semmes and to not use the back entrance of ECA to access the carpool lane. They are not to park and walk their child into school, and they are not to block in any residents who wanted to get out.”
Graham also said when the plan was being developed, the Department of Residential Life was regularly notified of any changes, and Graham met with some ECA residents to discuss their concerns. While it was certainly respectable for the parking office to include ECA residents in the planning process, it is disconcerting that current residents of ECA and nearby dormitories were not notified by anyone about the carpool line. In fact, it would have been proactive for Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation to notify all members of the University community about the carpool lane since that area of campus is not traveled solely by ECA residents.
Graham and Smith claim the current plan is the only option available. I have little doubt that it would be difficult for U-High if the lane were routed through a different area. However, ECA’s parking situation is already a headache for residents with almost non-existent parking and speeding cars cutting through. There is no need to aggravate the situation by routing a carpool lane for young children through part of the lot and cause additional aggravation for residents.
Will it take an 8-year-old being hit by a car in order to change the minds of administrators on the “merits” of the current plan? I certainly hope not.
—-Contact Laura Bratcher at [email protected]