By Melissa Walker
It happens in the early hours of the morning. Drivers are rushing to drop off students running late for class, and many forget to abide by traffic rules.
The ticket booth near the McDonald Building is a hotspot for such activity, said Lt. Greg Barber, a spokesman for University Police.
Drivers approach westbound in the right lane, make a U-turn and stop to let off passengers, Barber said.
He said it is illegal to make a U-turn from the right-hand lane to stop and let people out. The drop-offs are causing a lot of traffic problems.
Police are looking for ways to stop drivers from making illegal U-turns while dropping off students, Barber said.
He said students are unaware the right lane is the lane that allows access to campus.
“Many faculty are trying to get up on campus to teach their classes, but get stuck behind the individuals being dropped off,” Barber said.
There have been many complaints from drivers and pedestrians who have been involved with near misses, Barber said. Cars are stopping broadside in front of other cars to let students out, or pedestrians jump out of a parked car and into traffic.
To solve the problem, police have set aside an area in the parking lot by the McDonald Building so people can pull off into the stalls. This will help alleviate the traffic congestion, Barber said.
He said he often patrols this area and notices cars not using the stalls.
Russ Fuller, traffic enforcement supervisor for University Police, said the stalls are a success so far. Every stall is full of drivers waiting to pick up spouses and friends.
Fuller said every morning, 10 minutes before and after the hour, traffic is the busiest.
“The hard part is not that the students aren”t using the stalls, but the design of the roads being so narrow,” Fuller said.
Alisa Stacey, 22, a senior from Star Valley Wyo., majoring in photography, said she drops her husband off every morning and is frustrated with the traffic always being backed up and having nowhere to go.
She said there is always someone waiting behind when she stops. This makes it hard to get out of the parking lot.
Stacey wonders if there is anything the university can do to make it easier to drop people off, since there is never anywhere to park.
Barber said police are looking for ways to alleviate the traffic congestion, and they are possibly looking into redesigning the area.
Until then he encourages drivers to pull into the parking lot when dropping people off, rather than doing so along the curb.
Fuller said just by pulling into the stalls and getting off the street will improve the situation.
But the problem still remains.
“Too many people are in too big of hurry and ignore the traffic enforcers and just drive away,” Fuller said.
