Since January, U student Alice Greenfield has enjoyed curbside parking in the U business loop.
“It has been so convenient,” Greenfield said. “Four of my five classes are just a one-minute walk away from these parking spots.”
But starting Monday morning, the 110 parking slots created to help relieve the Olympic parking crunch will be removed and two-way traffic will resume in the business loop.
“I really liked the extra parking and wish they could continue it,” Greenfield said.
She is not the only student in favor of the additional parking spots, located closer to buildings than those reserved for faculty and staff with A permits. When the loop was restricted to one-way traffic in January, many students favored making the change permanent, said Alma Allred, director of transportation and parking services. That couldn’t be done, he said.
Crews plan on starting construction of an extension of the TRAX line to go from the stadium up to Primary Children’s Medical Center May 13. Starting that day, South Campus Drive will be closed at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Construction on the light rail line is expected to be completed sometime in 2004
“That area of campus needs to be as accessible as it can be,” Allred said.
Starting Monday public buses and U shuttles will run the loop for the first time in four months. Currently the U is trying to get permission from the Utah Department of Transportation to allow buses and shuttles to make stops on 500 South once South Campus Drive is closed. UDOT has already said that buses cannot stop along South Campus Drive once construction begins.
“Students are still going to need to get around campus,”Allred said. “We’ll have to figure out something and come to an agreement with UDOT.”
With the return of two-way traffic in the business loop, all Olympic changes made to campus transportation and parking plans have returned to normal.
Allred said revenues are down from previous years, but “that was expected,” due to the month-long break and the resulting decrease in ticket fines.
“Plus, we told our officers to be a lot more gracious on ticket giving,” Allred said.