Throughout my time as a student at the University, I have heard countless horror stories about contraflow from both other students and Baton Rouge community members. I have even heard some go as far as to call it “Hell on Earth.” However, I had never attempted to drive in it myself until the Sept. 23 home game against Syracuse. How bad could contraflow possibly be? The answer was far worse than I anticipated.
After leaving Tiger Stadium, I was prepared for slow-moving traffic and detours that would make it more difficult to access my apartment. What I was not prepared for was that every possible access point to my apartment on Ben Hur road would not just be more difficult to access, but completely blocked off to traffic entirely.
Ben Hur road is usually accessible from both Nicholson drive and Burbank drive but after the game it was not accessible from either access point, as they were both blocked off by police. With four massive student apartment complexes located on Ben Hur road, the current contraflow pattern leaves thousands of people without access to their apartments for hours after home football games.
LSU Athletics and Baton Rouge Police should consider ways to make contraflow effective for Baton Rouge residents. The current contraflow plan may work well for people traveling to games from out of town, but for those who actually live around the University in Baton Rouge, it is a complete and total nightmare.
The purpose of contraflow is to move cars off the crammed roadways and on to their destinations as effectively as possible. However, with access to many places near the University blocked off, this is not what actually happens. Oftentimes cars attempting to go somewhere blocked off by police do not just get off the road and wait for contraflow to end. Many drivers will instead choose to drive around the same circle of streets near the University indefinitely until the roadblocks on the street they are going to are removed. This causes a backup of traffic and congestion on roads near the University which is exactly what contraflow is designed to avoid.
Students who live on Ben Hur road are not the only ones affected by the current contraflow plan. Access to Highland Road, W. Lee Drive, Brightside Drive and Burbank Drive where many students and community residents live and work are also heavily restricted.
There are a large number of Baton Rouge residents who have no interest in attending football games. These people are already inconvenienced enough with the massive amounts of traffic in the city on game days. On top of this, they have to deal with entire sections of main roads like Highland blocked off for hours at a time. Those who live near the University, football fans or not, are essentially forced to choose between being trapped in their homes or not being able to return.
Without the current pattern of contraflow, Baton Rouge residents would surely still be stuck in traffic for lengthy periods of time, but at least they would have some hope of getting home. There obviously needs to be some system in place to move the massive amounts of traffic from Tiger Stadium after home football games, but it does not need to be a system that sacrifices the needs of those who live in Baton Rouge.
Anna Coleman is a 19-year-old mass communication junior from Kennesaw, Georgia.
