Commuting students will no longer have to guess which campus parking lots have available parking spots.
On Tuesday, KLSU, the campus radio station, began offering hourly campus parking reports.
The project is a collaboration between the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation and KLSU.
“We want people to get parked so they can get to class,” said Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation.
Graham said parking officials will radio back to the office at 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. The parking updates will air on KLSU 15 minutes later.
Graham said that the communication between parking officials and his office will allow all parking reports to be current and accurate.
“We have officers out in the field that can tell us about any problems,” Graham said.
Graham said that office will also attempt to account for the 15-minute delay by estimating the availability. He said that a parking lot reported to have 30 spots left at the top of the hour would be reported to the radio station as being full.
Students had varying opinions on how effective the new system will be.
“Everybody complains about parking,” said Tara Samanie, secondary education senior.
Samanie said that it would be an improvement because it was impossible in the past to know about the parking situation before arriving on campus.
Not everyone was as encouraged as Samanie.
“Usually when one lot is full, they all are full,” said Kyle Himel, a mechanical engineering junior.
The project was in the works last semester, but was delayed because of the holiday break, said Patrick Downs, a broadcast sales manager for KLSU who worked on the agreement.
“We went to them just like we would any other campus organization,” Downs said. “They had an idea for something different.”
Downs said that the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation paid $1,597.50 to run the parking updates for the rest of the semester. Also, the office will have three 30-second advertisements on KLSU each day.
It is not uncommon for informational segments to be underwritten, Downs said. He said that traffic and sports updates are financed by local businesses.
KLSU already offers Baton Rouge traffic reports.
“This is the beginning stages,” Downs said. “We expect to make a few changes because it’s a new concept. We hope it can be an asset to students.”
Downs said that the agreement will be revisited at the end of the semester to see if the office is interested in continuing the relationship.
“Hopefully, students will listen to KLSU,” Graham said. “We’re going to try it this semester and see how it goes.”
Downs said that feedback is welcome and should be directed to the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, or KLSU at 578-KLSU.
KLSU is 91.1 FM and can be heard throughout the Baton Rouge metropolitan area.