University adds temporary parking to ease traffic

Rebeca Piccardo and Camila Fernandez / FIUSM Staff

The first two weeks of the fall semester is the most difficult time to find parking, and the University hopes that adding temporary spaces will ease traffic around Modesto Maidique Campus.

In a University-wide email, President Mark B. Rosenberg announced the arrival of 7,100 freshmen and transfer students and 154 new faculty members. To help relieve traffic, an Aug. 21 memorandum by FIU External Relations was released for new and returning students and faculty.

According to the memorandum, there will be 2,000 temporary parking spaces at MMC and 350 temporary parking spaces on the northeast corner of the Engineering Center campus on 107 Ave. and Flagler Street.

These overflow lots, according to the FIU Parking and Transportation survival guide, are located on the outskirts of the main campus, with 1,500 spots in Tamiami Park by the FIU Stadium, 400 spots behind Lot 5 by the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center, and 470 next to PG-5 along Eighth Street.

The Panther Mover shuttle, which usually transports students back and forth between Charles Perry building and Panther Garage, will also pick up and drop off students at the temporary parking spaces at Tamiami Park and Lot 5.

Additionally, external relations “strongly encourages” employees to use the temporary spaces on the outskirts of the main campus during these first few weeks.

The CATS shuttle will continue transporting faculty and students between MMC and the Engineering Center.

When needed, the Parking and Transportation office said they would provide additional buses.

As an option for housing students with cars, there are 291 parking spaces available to residential students in Parkview Housing garage if they pay an additional $160 per semester.

Another issue the University tries to address during the beginning of fall is the traffic around campus.

“To move traffic in and out of campus as safely and efficiently as possible, we will have extra police officers and public safety technicians directing traffic,” the memorandum said.

Students like Giuliana Kunzle, a junior psychology major, find it ridiculous to spend so much time and gas driving through traffic to find a parking space.

“It’s going and stepping [on the gas pedal], going and stepping — that’s what wastes the most gas,” she said.

Living in Weston, Kunzle said she left at 7 a.m. thinking she would avoid heavy traffic. To her surprise, it took 20 minutes from the moment she exited the Florida Turnpike to arrive to campus.

“I should’ve expected it. I forgot that it was like that because in the summer it’s so calm.”

According to Director of Parking and Transportation, Lissette Hernandez, traffic during the first weeks of the semester is normal.

The need of students to buy books, change classes, make payments, and get overrides die down as students finalize their schedules and create a routine, Hernandez said.

Aside from the main entrance and others along Eighth Street, the office of external relations reminds students of other options to reach campus through Southwest 107 Ave., Coral Way and Southwest 117 Ave.

 news@fiusm.com