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News Release
Contact: Joe King
(815) 753-4299
April 22, 2004
Parking Services announces new regulations for fall
DEKALB -- New parking regulations will greet students as they drive back to campus in the fall.
Changes will include the removal of many parking meters on the central campus, reallocation of parking spaces to increase the number of parking spots available to commuter students and restrictions designed to decrease traffic at peak hours.
“Our goal is to create a safer, cleaner, more efficient campus,” said Norm Jenkins, chair of the Campus Parking Committee. “We think these changes will help achieve those goals, while actually addressing some of the most pressing student concerns about parking.”
Probably the most dramatic change will be new regulations restricting student traffic on the central campus (east of Annie Glidden Road) between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. Under the new rules, students with orange or green permits will not be allowed to park anywhere on the central campus – including parking meters, 15-minute zones or the pay lot – during those hours. Furthermore, vehicles displaying those stickers will not be allowed to stop, stand or idle in any central campus parking lots or driveways during those hours.
“The orange and green permits were created to provide students with long-term parking – a place to store their car during the school week,” Jenkins said. “However, many students have gotten into the habit of getting friends to drop them off and pick them up at classes. This has resulted in tremendous traffic jams, and a lot of close calls between vehicles and pedestrians (as well as many actual accidents) as drivers idle or circle parking lots waiting to pick up friends. These changes are intended to reduce those problems and should dramatically improve the traffic flow around campus.”
“Traffic jams are a significant factor contributing to Huskie Bus Line delays. We believe one of the real keys to a successful transportation and parking strategy on campus is our ability to allow the bus line to operate effectively, this will help that,” Jenkins added.
The elimination of some parking (23 spots) for students with brown (DeKalb resident) permits and the reallocation of some metered spots will result in an additional 161 parking spaces for commuter students. There will also be more reserved parking spaces (near the library) available for purchase by commuter students.
“For years, commuter students – those driving in from long distances – have suffered from a lack of parking,” Jenkins said. “Most frustrating to them was driving an hour or more to get to campus only to find parking lots filled with the cars of students who live minutes away. “We believe bus service available to these close-to-campus students is strong, particularly if we do what we can to help keep buses running on time.”
To avoid abuse of commuter permits, Parking Services plans to step up its enforcement to prevent students living locally from falsifying information and buying the yellow permits. “We have developed some very efficient methods of policing that situation in recent years, and we plan to step up those efforts this year,” said Campus Parking Traffic Coordinator Ron Pearson.
“We realize that some of these changes are drastic, but it became clear to us this year that dramatic change was needed to address the traffic problems on campus,” Jenkins said.
To help students adjust to the new changes, Parking Services is updating its Website to include a page that will include links to things such as the new parking map, the campus Web map (which includes a walking time calculator to help students find more direct routes), schedules for the Huskie Bus and Barsema Shuttle, and advice regarding what parking lots are underutilized at various times of the day.
“Ultimately, we are trying to change the campus culture,” Jenkins said. “We want students to rely less on cars, and more on other ways of getting around – whether that is buses, bikes or walking. Surveys of students in the past few years found many concerned about traffic congestion and safety on campus. Hopefully this will improve those situations.”
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