News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech students and staff will experience changes to the parking zones and shuttle route beginning Monday.
Senior Director of Public Relations Dewayne Wright said the changes were based on feedback from last semester.
“So the university looked at what parking lots were being used, how they were being used, how the shuttles were being used,” Wright said. “And decided to rezone some parking lots and change the shuttle route to better align with what we were hearing.”
Tennessee Tech students and faculty will see various changes to parking rezoning Monday. (Photo: TN Tech)
Wright said the biggest changes concern transition of three Purple level parking lots to Red level parking, including lots at Foundation Hall, Tech Village, and the Intramural Field.
“There were a lot of students that chose to purchase the purple permit because most of their classes were in Foundation Hall,” Wright said. “And so with this rezoning, their permits would no longer be able to be able to park in the Foundation Hall parking lot.”
Wright said the university will offer $37 upgrades for current Purple Permit holders.
Tech also eliminated 30-minute parking on Peachtree Avenue.
Tennessee Tech eliminated the Purple shuttle route as well. Wright said both shuttles will now travel around the center of campus.
“What we saw last fall was there were not many riders for our purple route, which looped around campus,” Wright said. “The vast majority of riders wanted to just come from the west side of campus to the center of campus at Volpe Library.”
Wright said the shuttles will continue to operate from 6:45 am to 5:00 pm.
“That time was made so that there is a little bit of overlap between when the parking becomes open or the zones are not enforced,” Wright said. “So starting at 4:30 pm each day, anyone who has a valid parking permit can park at any space on campus.”
Wright said the Parking Committee decided to implement these changes before the fall semester because of faculty and student concern.
“So the advantage to that is that we saw there were immediate concerns that we could address by these changes,” Wright said. “So instead of waiting until the summer, we wanted to make those changes that we could do right away to hopefully have a positive impact for the spring semester.”
Those with Purple parking will now have to park in the West Campus lot or the Athletic Performance Center lot.
