Changes in parking arrangements on campus will create more spaces and improve convenience for students living on campus, according to Ron Malone, assistant vice president of events and transportation.
Beginning fall 2014, students living off campus will no longer be allowed to park their vehicles in dormitory parking lots, allowing more spaces for on-campus residents.
Several dorm adjacent lots will become red parking zones restricted to dorm residents, including the lots along Alma Mater Drive, the Judd Sims lot and the lot directly across Alumni Drive, Malone said.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Ryan Montgomery, a red parking registered senior living on campus. “I kind of think they should have done it a long time ago.”
Many commuter students will likely have to park in perimeter lots as a result of the changes. Malone encourages students without red parking passes to use the campus buses.
“The [bus] system is designed so that it will take no more than eight minutes to from the bus stop to their destination,” Malone said.
The eight-minute trip is calculated from a very low attendance day, according to Malone. More buses run when more students are on campus, which may reduce the time it takes a student to reach his or her destination to as low as four minutes, Malone said. The university currently owns 15 buses.
Commuter students can also take advantage of the new MTSU bus tracking app on their mobile devices to better coordinate their trips to campus, according to Malone.
“[The bus system] is effective, and I am happy that they do it,” said Steven Saksa, a freshman basic and applied sciences major. “But at night, especially from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., the red bus takes a very long time to get where I am and a very long time to get me where I need to be. I wish they would do a few more buses at night, because I’ve waited 15 to 20 minutes out in the cold in December and January for the bus.”
To access the bus tracking app, students must select “MapIt” in their MT Mobile Apps and then touch the pin icon at the top of the screen to access the colored bus routes, which show the location of buses in real time on all four routes.
“If it is raining or if it is cold outside, students don’t have to wait at the bus stops,” Malone said. “They can wait inside of the buildings out of the cold and watch exactly when the bus is coming.”
In addition to the implementation of resident-only parking occurring next fall, the small lot outside of the Student Union Building has already been transformed to a white zone, but the larger adjoining lot will remain green.
President Sidney McPhee explained in a Town Hall meeting April 16 that the creation of the new SUB white lot will improve and streamline the admissions and registration processes for students.
Another parking garage located at the corner of Greenland Boulevard and North Highland Avenue is in the works, according to Malone; although the garage will remain vacant until damage done by vandals over the past few years is repaired, as well as allowing for the parking lot resurfacing to be fully completed and dried, ready for the large influx of students wishing to park their vehicles.
“We are very excited about implementing this plan,” Malone said.
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