by Nicolas Bravo
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Harmon parking garage underwent renovations at the end of the last school year to help improve the flow of traffic.
Gates used to be at the exits of Harmon, where students had to swipe a card to open the gate. This was a slow process which which led to a long stream of cars.
Over winter break, UA Transit and Parking removed the gates at the exits to try and alleviate traffic. Another update they included was by only allowing students with a Harmon parking pass to park on floors one through seven, while students who pay can only park on floors eight and nine.
“Leaving’s not a possibility during peak hour, you get stuck,” said student Jake Harlik. “I’ve been stuck up to the 8th floor before where you have to sit there for 30 to 45 minutes, you just hope that some student lets three to four cars go to get things moving.”
When the jam occurs, students entering Harmon run into trouble as well, because they get stuck waiting on students trying to leave.
“It’s a huge issue, I’ve been late to numerous things because of traffic, sometimes even getting in there will be an issue if people can’t get out, and because people can’t get out people can’t get in, there’s just big spiral going up,” said
During the half hour after classes let out, students trying to exit Harmon is near impossible as cars can be backed up all the way to the top floor.
Some of this issue is created by the crosswalks surrounding Harmon.
There are nine floors to the parking garage that hold about 2200 cars, but only four main exits for cars. Of those exits, all of them have crosswalks within the vicinity of them. This creates the backup of cars as they have to yield to pedestrians.