Full parking lots, bus confusion and parking tickets greeted students as they returned to campus for the first week of the fall semester.
Some students have had trouble finding a parking spot and others have complained about the distance from their parking spot to their first class.
Director of Parking, Traffic and Transportation Gary Graham said the parking problems are normal.
“It’s just the first week of school,” Graham said. “It’s been like that for more than 20 years and will probably continue for the next 20 years.”
Other than the “normal parking confusion” of the first week, Graham said students may be confused because the University has made several changes to the bus routes and schedules.
The University has contracts with Capital Transportation Corporation for on and off campus bus service from highly populated student areas, Graham said.
Student Government President Allen Richey said SG worked with the Department of Parking, Traffic and Transportation during the summer to improve the campus and help meet students’ transportation needs.
Kyle Wilkinson, SG Director of Campus Safety and Transportation, said one of the biggest campus traffic problems is at intersection of Tower Drive and Forestry Lane.
At the intersection in the middle of the Life Sciences building, the Union, Howe-Russell and the Human Ecology building, buses traveling through campus get stuck at crosswalks as crowds of students move through the streets, Wilkinson said.
During the summer, Wilkinson worked with Graham to change how the bus routes move throughout the campus.
“Buses were being delayed substantially due to all the pedestrians on campus,” Graham said. “Every route had to cross crosswalks.”
The buses now avoid the Life Sciences area and pick up and drop off passengers one block over, near the Fred C. Frey building.
“Students will have to walk a couple of minutes longer to get to their bus stops, but in turn get home much sooner because the buses will not get stuck in traffic,” Wilkinson said.
Students who choose to use the buses for off-campus transportation will also notice changes in bus routes.
The Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation eliminated the Gardere Route because not many students were using it, Graham said.
A maximum of about 50 people rode the Gardere route each day and Graham said he felt the buses could be better utilized in other routes.
Because the city already offers a bus route through the area which the former Gardere route covered, Graham said the bus will be better utilized in the Tigerland Route.
Graham said he hopes all of these changes will ease some on-campus traffic problems and transport students more efficiently around the University.
Students can find parking and bus route maps at the Public Safety building on South Stadium Road or the SG office on the third floor of the Union.