Officials address parking complaints
    Students are always willing to voice their opinions about the terrors of parking on campus.
However, according to those who oversee parking at the University, there are bus services and commuter lots not getting usage from students, not to mention LSU has one of the highest rates of parking per capita of any major university in the country.
“It is more of a problem of convenience,” said Parking, Traffic and Transportation Director Gary Graham. “We are able to park everyone on campus even with the rodeo. But the problem is that it’s further out and that’s not where people want to park.”
Graham said many people are upset because they cannot get a parking space right where they want to be.
“There is no way with a university this size that we can get anyone close to the front door,” Graham said.
The addition of 200 spaces on Alaska Street originally was to be part of the new north campus apartments project, Graham said. But the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation worked to separate the addition from the construction so they could be built faster to quickly alleviate parking problems.
According to Graham, the addition of parking spaces is scheduled to be completed this summer.
In addition to this, Graham said there are many more things being considered to ease the parking and traffic strain.
“I’ve been working closely with Student Government to encourage the use of buses so students don’t have to walk far,” he said.
SG Director of Transportation and Safety and marketing senior Eric Ellis said there has been much discussion recently about the reintroduction of TigerTram, the van system used to bring students from parking lots into the center of campus.
Ellis said as a student, he understands the strain to find a decent parking spot, but he also feels there is more than enough spaces.
“But students are not going to want to park out there [in the remote commuter lots],” Ellis said. “It’s simply too far away.”
For this reason, Ellis feels the movement to reintroduce and organize the TigerTram system is essential.
Also, Ellis said the Kirby Smith/Vet School bus is rarely used by students, even though it uses a central campus route.
In addressing students’ suggestions in building parking garages, Ellis said the main problem is money.
Although the Master Plan does call for the zoning of specific areas around campus for parking garages, that does not guarantee the actual construction of the parking garages in the near future or possibly ever, Ellis said.
The average parking space on campus takes about $1,000 per year to finance, Ellis said. One parking space in a parking garage would cost the University about $10,000, not including safety concerns.
Also, a parking garage would not alleviate traffic because streets on campus are narrow and cars spilling out of parking garages onto those streets would cause more traffic, Ellis said.
“This would cause major traffic problems for a campus as big as ours,” Ellis said.
Graham said in terms of parking and traffic, LSU compares positively to most universities its size.
This is partly noticeable in the fact that LSU has yet to resort to prohibiting freshmen in dorms from having cars, Graham said.
According to Graham, the University of North Carolina does not allow parking permits to students who live within two miles of campus.
Students who live in Tiger Land would not be allowed to have permits if LSU followed the University of North Carolina’s lead, he said.
Overall, Ellis said he is very pleased with the feedback students have been giving about parking and traffic.
“We’ve had tons of really good suggestions,” Ellis said. “I encourage students to keep giving feedback.”
Benjamin Leger