Chronic local parking snarl under scrutiny
By CHRIS NORMAN
Of the Emerald
You drive to campus, wheeling
your 67 Ford by Mac Court, look
ing for that once in a lifetime park
ing spot that you know isn’t there,
and inevitably wind up leaving
your motorized rickshaw in front of
someone else’s home.
Unbeknownst to you, however,
a University neighborhood resi
dent has just placed a telephone
call to the University complaining
about some student, faculty or
staff member (namely you) who
has just left a car blocking their
driveway.
You never hear about the com
plaint, the resident of the home in
front of which you have parked is
bugged because she/he can’t get
out of her/his driveway and the
University never hears the end of
all the complaints.
The problem is parked cars left
in front of University neighbor
hood resident homes from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m., and no one is quite sure
who to blame.
University planner Dave Rowe
says, “I’ve got a file three inches
thick’’ of complaints residents
have filed about the parking situa
tion, some of which have come
from as far away as 21st Avenue
and Alder Street.
Currently, the University is at a
loss for an answer to the parking
situation, Rowe says. Little is
known about the transportation
habits of the faculty or staff, al
though some information is avail
able on student habits.
But in the spirit of cooperation
the Lane Transit District (LTD) re
cently offered its services to the
University to increase the LTD in
formation programs now aimed at
the campus community, says
Rosemary Boss, the LTD market
ing director.
Housing officials offer meeting
for traffic safety improvements
University Housing officials
have scheduled an open meeting
with residents of the Amazon Mar
ried Student Housing Complex
Saturday to discuss proposed traf
fic safety improvements in the
complex.
Married students at Amazon
have expressed concern about
the traffic in the complex and the
safety of small children who play
in the area.
H.P. Barnhart, director of hous
ing, said Saturday's meeting will
be held in the Amazon Community
Room, 2316-1 Patterson, begin
ning at 10 a.m.
He said recommendations
made to the Housing Department
by city traffic, public works, and
fire officials, and the University's
environmental health and public
safety officer, will be presented
and discussed.
“We ll be willing to accept con
structive comments to improve
the recommendations,” Barnhart
said. “Well also be looking for
new ideas to be brought to light.”
He said some of the recom
mendations could be im
plemented as early as next week.
The traffic and safety experts,
Barnhart said, have recom
mended a series of changes.
Their recommendations include
striping pedestrian walkways and
traffic lanes along Patterson Drive
and eliminating parking along the
inner curb of the Patterson Drive
loop.
The engineers recommend es
tablishing a five-foot pedestrian
walkway alongside the Patterson
loop fence; designating two nine
foot traffic lanes on the street, and
setting aside a five-foot pedes
trian walkway next to the parking
lane. They recommend a seven
foot perimeter parking lane.
They also recommend raising
all warning and speed signs to a
height that makes them visible
above parked cars, designing
some “unconventional” warning
signs to call greater attention to
safety and concentrating those
signs at complex entrances, filling
in speed control dips and replac
ing them with roadway barrier
“bumps,” and permanently clos
ing a playground gate that opens
onto Patterson Drive.
Traffic officials, however, do not
recommend reducing the 10
mile-per-hour speed limit in the
complex. "Advisory speed of 10
miles-per-hour is quite adequate
Seminar examines
education policies
By SEAN MEYERS
Of the Emerald
Graduate students from as far
away as Harvard University will
travel to the University next
weekend for a three-day seminar
titled “Evolving Educational Policy
in Foreign Countries," which will
feature speakers working in un
derdeveloped countries.
"The purpose of the seminar is
to increase the knowledge and
awareness of evolving educa
tional policies in foreign coun
tries," said Barbara Cole, the
program's coordinator. “The con
ference will focus on countries
and areas generally considered
developing. The seminar will also
consider culturally determined
political influence, theories and
practices that effect pre-school
through post secondary educa
tional policy." Although the
program is designed primarily for
graduate education students, the
community and University is in
vited, says Cole. She requests
that those interested contact her
in advance at 686-5087 or
686-5173.
Highlighting the conference will
be speakers Leslie Gue and Mor
dechat Peri. Gue is a professor of
educational administration and is
in charge of the Thailand Project.
Peri, from the University of Haifa
in Israel, is finishing up some work
at the University.
Also slated to speak are Aseafa
Aabregiorgis, with the Ministry of
Education in Ethiopia; Stuart
Young of this University, and Neil
Holm of Darwin County College in
Darwin, Australia.
In addition a dozen experts —
from New Zealand, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Thailand, Australia,
India and the Philippines — will
be on hand to conduct a visitation.
The conference is sponsored
by the Center of Educational Pol
icy and Management (CEPM) and
the University Council for Educa
tional Administration (UCEA). The
work involved in putting the prog
ram on is being done by University
graduate students.
Graduate students from the
University of Oklahoma, Illinois
State University, Harvard, Univer
sity of Alberta and the University
of Michigan will attend. All the rep
resented colleges are members of
and aided by the UCEA.
Registration begins at 5 p.m.
May 12 in the EMU Forum
for this area,” a city engineer ob
served. He said because so many
modem vehicle speedometers do
not read speeds below 10 miles
per-hour, a reduction in the posted
limit would be “ineffective.”
Boss speculated the decreased
volume of LTD advertising pro
grams might have something to
do with the large number of cars
parking in residential areas. In
other words, if the advertising in
creased, maybe more students,
faculty or staff would use the ser
vices of LTD, rather than drive
their cars to school.
The parking problem, however,
is a little too complex to solve sim
ply by increasing the number of
LTD ads, Rowe says.
Because information on stu
dent, faculty and staff traveling
habits is “skimpy,” Rowe says,
the University wants to conduct
in-depth research to identify more
clearly how individuals get to the
campus area.
Boss says, “We don’t know
who’s riding bicycles or taking the
bus. Is it the faculty or staff who
are using the lots? Are students
using the lots or streets?”
These questions and others like
them will have to asked if the park
ing problem is to be resolved.
The attack on the parking prob
lem will probably come from the
joint effort between LTD and the
University, Boss says. The
Lane-Council of Governments
may also give some assistance.
“I don’t anticipate that LTD can
respond immediately,” she says,
but any proposals brought forward
would probably be integrated into
LTD’s long-term plans for the
city’s transportation problems.
Rowe suggested a question
naire might be slipped into the
student’s 1977 winter registration
packets to obtain specific informa
tion on traveling habits. A sepa
rate questionnaire would also be
issued to the faculty and staff.
But most of the current talk is of
the possibility of conducting re
search, the survey questions that
might be asked and the chances
of implementing a successful
program to combat the parking
problem.
One meeting has already been
held and the next is scheduled for
Wednesday in the LTD Confer
ence Room at 8th Avenue and
Garfield Street at 3 p.m.
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