By: Marlon Villa and Maddie Fredrickson
Altercations, vehicle congestion and a desire for improved traffic flow patterns are the main reasons why Long Beach State implemented four new drop-off zones over the summer.
The new zones are located outside of the Family and Consumer Sciences building, the Liberal Arts buildings, the library and the University Theater and near Walter Pyramid.
Previous issues with drop-offs in unauthorized areas mainly stemmed from extreme traffic on upper campus. People in cars were blocking traffic lanes by throwing their hazards on and waiting for their passengers.
A decrease in traffic in normally congested areas, such as West Campus Drive, shows that the new zones are working.
According to Parking and Operations Director Chad Keller, there was a 71.4% decrease in complaints this fall semester.
Decisions were made based on observations from enforcement officers and reports through emails, as those are the only forms they keep track of.
Third-year fashion merchandising major Cassandra Urufno, believes the drop-off zones are pretty effective and beneficial for students.
“I feel like a lot of people don’t have their license and I think it’d be convenient if they would expand, or at least, have other drop-off locations that are more reliable for students,” Urufno said.
Urufno explained that traffic can get bad on West Campus Drive, the street that the Go Beach sign sits on.
“Sometimes it really gets congested here, especially on the main street and it just causes traffic,” Urufno said.
A large part of why these new zones were added was to ease backups by the Go Beach sign.
The Go Beach sign is a popular unauthorized drop-off location where drivers tend to idle and wait for passengers. It has a red curb, which is intended to be a limited-time parking zone for buses, shuttles and emergency vehicles.
The motivation behind establishing the new zones was not only to alleviate congestion, but also to enhance student safety.
“It probably makes more sense than dropping the person off just anywhere,” Uber driver Lillian Vincent said.
Vincent had an issue with the zones as she got honked at for being on the wrong side of the road.
In a one-hour observation of the drop-off zone, situated adjacent to the liberal arts buildings, it was calculated that 40 vehicles accessed the drop-off zone, either picking up or dropping off a student.
During this observation, there was constant traffic as well as multiple altercations with faculty trucks, asking drivers to relocate after they had been lingering in the zone for more than a few minutes.
If a car needs to linger, they are expected to wait in the cell phone waiting lot.
The new free 15-minute cell phone waiting area consists of seven parking spots. Located on upper campus in the South Turnaround by the library.
Third-year student Madeline Spangler said her boyfriend utilizes the waiting area when he picks her up from school.
“It’s honestly pretty small, but it works. He used to not know where to go when he was early but now he can just wait there and it’s usually pretty empty,” Spangler said.