Road construction is always frustrating. It causes road congestion, confusion due to detours and just a multitude of issues for a driver. The construction on Hickory Street is no different. It places higher stress on off-campus students trying to find parking than before.

Hickory Street is one of the main roads to access campus. Many off-campus students park there to get to classes all over campus. It’s the least car-congested road close to campus given that the other roads are full of cars belonging to dorm residents.

This road construction makes it so most of Hickory Street that passes through campus is cut off. This causes off-campus students to have to search even harder for parking, finding it often in residential areas like Irene Street. This is an issue because students looking for parking will often be late to classes and residents of the houses students have to park in front of surely want to park on their street as well.
Also, students parking on these residential streets have to cross through the Hickory Street construction site to get to campus, which is dangerous with all the holes in the road, and the heavy machinery the workers are using. There are a few solutions to make this road construction less stressful.

To help ease the congestion on Hickory Street and residential streets, the campus could open up their commuter and staff parking lots to everyone by selling temporary parking permits for the conditions. Fewer drivers would have to park on the residential streets and the parking lots are not always filled up completely so it wouldn’t create issues for those with full semester permits.

The campus could also create temporary parking in grassy areas on campus. This way those who did not pay for parking permits would not get the luxury of parking in the lots but would be in less danger of getting hit by a construction vehicle while passing through the Hickory Street.

The last solution is the easiest. Students who live close enough to campus should just walk from their homes to their classes. The weather has been nice enough that they wouldn’t freeze to death and let’s face it, it’s a good way to save on gas and burn a few calories at the same time. Get the bike out, ride to campus. It’s a greener way to get around and it eliminates the frustration of finding parking.