Construction on parking lot 33 near Moore Hall and the Music Building is now complete.

The renovated lot offers three entrances and exits, with traffic flow directed so regular vehicles cannot travel on the road closest to Moore Hall and the Music Building. That street is now one-way and only available to service vehicles such as buses.

Instead, commuters entering from East Campus Drive at the northeast or southeast entrance will now see “do not enter” signs immediately upon turning into the lot. The driver must then turn into the back of the parking lot rather than continuing toward the service vehicle route.

“It’s just to try to make it a little safer,” said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management.

It is a process that may take some getting used to at first, he said.

A third entrance into lot 33-south is located along East Campus Drive close to the marching band field.

Although construction on the project is finished, signs are still being moved and added, Lawrence said.

CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley said the area in front of Moore Hall and the Music Building was often clustered with traffic prior to the renovations, posing a danger to pedestrians.

“That was one of the driving factors,” he said. “Anytime you combine pedestrians and vehicles, there’s a risk. What we’ve done is minimize that chance.”

Other campus parking lots were the subject of construction this summer.

In order to better control traffic flow and pedestrian safety in Lot 62 near Kelly/Shorts Stadium, a new entrance and exit was built this summer on its northeast side along East Campus Drive, Lawrence said. A stop sign is being placed in the exit.

A connector between Lot 8 and 11 is also been added where grass previously stood.

The Central Michigan University Board of Trustees approved the changes at their July 15 meeting.

CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley said two of the most important parking lots are Lot 33 on East Campus Drive near Moore Hall and the Music Building and Lot 62 by the football stadium.

Yeagley said several one-way signs will be placed in Lot 33. He said these new additions should create a safer path for people to cross and not condense with cars in the lot.

“We need to establish a safer way for people to get to the building,” Yeagley said.

Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of facilities management said the reason for the change to Lot 33 is to minimize the traffic entering the parking lot from the west end. He said there will be several entrances and exits added to Lot 33 and the project should be done by the beginning of the fall semester.

This will reduce the conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles, Lawrence said.

He said the road in front of Moore Hall and the Music Building will be reserved for buses and service vehicles.

“Only buses and service vehicles will be allowed to drive through these areas,” he said.

Yeagley said an additional stop sign will be added at the northeast side of Lot 62 by the Kelly/Shorts  stadium on East Campus Drive due to demands with traffic flow, especially during football games.

“It will help increase flow of traffic and decrease the amount of time to sit and wait,” Yeagley said.

Lawrence said moving the entrance and exit from East Campus Drive of parking lot 62 to the north side will also reduce the conflict between pedestrians and vehicles.

“In both cases, we are looking to improve pedestrian safety,” Lawrence said.

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The parking lots behind Moore Hall and the Music Building are congested, packed full with nowhere for incoming cars to go.

So is the lot north of the Towers near Pearce Hall.

Some students are angry, blaming faculty members for not taking advantage of faculty-only lots. Specifically, a new lot adjacent to the Education and Human Services Building.

It is available to faculty and staff members only, but many are not using it, said East Tawas sophomore Taylor Phillips. Instead, he said they continue to park in Lots 22 and 33 by habit.

“Maybe our teachers need to be more educated,” said Phillips, who parks his car at the back of Lot 33 every day. “They have another parking lot that would place them even closer to the buildings the teach in anyway. Why wouldn’t they want to park there? They are just making it really hard for us to get to class on time.”

CMU Police has sold 10,940 parking permits for the 2009-10 academic year. Of those, 8,794 are students and 2,146 are faculty members, said CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley.

There are 11,196 parking spaces on campus.

Lot 33 holds 971 spaces, designated as an all-student lot. Lot 22 holds 873 spaces, 22 of which are designated parking for faculty members. The EHS building lot holds 297
spaces, all designated for faculty and staff parking only.

Yeagley said the new EHS lot has been, at most, three-quarters full. That leaves about 75 of the 297 available parking spaces empty on any weekday.

Yeagley said there have not been any formal complaints filed at the police department.

‘Ridiculously full’

Since the EHS Building lot’s opening two weeks ago, many students have been issued tickets. Yeagley said the sign at the lot’s entrance was incorrect, stating students were available to park. The sign was changed Tuesday, and all students who were issued tickets do not have to pay them.

“Those tickets will be void as long as the students come to the police station and tell us about it,” Yeagley said. “Hopefully, now that it is open to faculty only, this will open more parking spaces in Lots 22 and 33 for everybody, and there won’t be as many problems between faculty and student parking needs.”

Alpena senior Kristen Boyk has parked in Lot 33 for the last four years. Each year, she said the lot has become more full.

Boyk has had more trouble finding a parking spot, she said. The most time it has taken was 15 minutes.

“It’s ridiculously full,” she said. “I don’t understand why faculty are still parking in this lot. I don’t think they should. The front commuter lot (Lot 22) is horrible, too. I used to park there sometimes, but it is even harder to find a spot in that lot. It’s just not fun parking basically on Mission Street when my class is in Pearce Hall.”

Steve Smith, director of CMU public relations, said if students have an issue, they need to submit a formal complaint to the CMU Police Department.

“If people have a permit to park in those parking lots, which all faculty members do, and they are not violating the law,” Smith said. “Then I don’t see a problem here.”

The three courts, which now form a one-way street entering at Ottawa and exiting at Ojibway, surround Washington Apartments and the new Education and Human Services Building.

“The project is piloting back-in angle parking, which is a pedestrian friendly concept that CMU and the city of Mount Pleasant learned about last winter when working with a consultant on ‘walkable’ communities,” said Linda Slater, director of plant engineering and planning.

Other cities, including Ann Arbor, are installing this type of parking, she said. Many places are testing the new parking concept out and are proving back-in parking to be safer and easier, she said.

“I agree that back-in angle parking will afford the driver a better view of oncoming cars, pedestrians and bikers as they pull out of the parking space,” said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management.

The project, which was necessary because of the roads’ poor condition, is trying to incorporate pedestrians and drivers into a safe and welcoming environment, Slater said.

“The new changes on campus will definitely result in a more pedestrian-friendly atmosphere,” Lawrence said.

FM additionally added raised crosswalks, bike lanes, a bus stop and an entrance and exit to the new lot 56, which will be between the EHS building and Washington Street, Slater said.

“Four Washington Apartments were demolished for the construction of the parking lot, and construction is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 11,” Lawrence said.