Students create traffic problem

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Friday, October 18, 1958.

Lloyd Durow, superintendent of Washburn’s Buildings and Grounds department, warned today that it’s “starting out like it’s going to be a rough year” with the school’s traffic problem. By October 3, 105 traffic tickets had been served on campus, nine of them to second offenders. The majority were placed on cars parked in restricted areas.

“Most of the students could avoid the dollar fines if they would only drive a block further an dark in the southern end of the campus.” commented Durow…He pointed out that while the parking stalls near Morgan building are usually filled to capacity, virtually all the lots south of the 19th Street are less than two-thirds full.

Especially empty, except on organization nights, are the spacious parking areas behind Benton Hall and east of “sorority row.” At the peak traffic hour on Friday only 41 out of 60 curb stalls were filled behind the hall and 16 out of 40 spots taken in the area near the Greek houses.

On the easter side of the campus, 19th Street south of the Kappa Sigma house was only one-sixth filled at the peak hour, while an adjacent lot had only 11 out of 60 available stalls taken.

Durow and his assistant, William Whistler, keep a constant check on the number of automobiles driven on campus. At latest count, 891 cars were actually parked within the grounds, 77 in the housing areas and 40 near the fraternity houses on the city streets. This adds up to 1038 faculty and student cars compared to 938 at last years peak.

Future plans include a change to parallel parking on the campus section of Jewell Avenue. At present, car clearance is too small to allow safe passage of two way traffic. Signs announcing the change in parking style will be posted within the next few weeks. although a new roadway has been constructed South of Jewell any gain in parking will probably be cancelled out by the new system.