2008 Woodie Awards
Increased enrollment causes congestion on IC campus
James Roe
Issue date: 9/15/05 Section: News
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The Iowa City campus is located on Lower Muscatine Drive, a heavily-trafficked, two-lane street on the east side of Iowa City, just north of the neighborhood that surrounds Mark Twain Elementary. To the west lies Mid-American Energy and to the east is a large Oral-B facility. The only entrance to the large parking lot, behind the main building, is from Lower Muscatine Drive, which creates enormous amounts of traffic from students coming from both directions.
Because most college-age students come from downtown, there is a long line of cars, sometimes two or three blocks long, waiting to turn left into the parking lot. Last spring, after waiting for nearly 10 minutes to turn left into the parking lot for his 9 a.m. class, Kirkwood student Alex Lensing said he saw a student nearly get run over.
"There were a few cars in front of me waiting to turn left into the parking lot and there was a break in traffic for the first time in a few minutes. One of the cars ahead of me was in such a rush that they didn't check to see if there was anyone in the crosswalk. Luckily the guy crossing the street stopped short because he saw the car coming, but it was a close call," Lensing said.
Some students choose to park on side streets south of Lower Muscatine Drive and walk across the street to get to class. That can be dangerous because there is no crosswalk and students must dart between moving traffic. The traffic also affects residents across from Lower Muscatine Drive.
Janice Linz, who lives directly across the street from Kirkwood, said her biggest concern seemed to be the safety of students flying in and out of that intersection.
"It's gotten to the point where, 10 minutes before and after every hour from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., the street is impossible to drive on. I can't even get out of my driveway without waiting for someone to let me in."