Parking is never an easy feat on or around campus, especially on home gamedays. Local officials said a few simple plans made in advance may eliminate parking woes at this Saturday's football season opener against San Diego State.

Theta Dempsey, interim administrator of Parking Transit Services, is in charge of game day parking. Dempsey, who employs a full-time crew of 13 and hires an additional 67 temporary employees for home football games, said there are several parking areas on and off campus. However, some fill up more quickly than others.

She said all non-reserved spaces are offered to those with campus parking permits free of charge and at a cost of $5 to all others.

"That includes faculty and staff parking, commuter and multipurpose - but we don't sell housing parking," she said.

Dempsey said parking and a shuttle which starts running three hours prior to game time are also available at Lloyd Noble. The shuttle leaves for Oklahoma Memorial Stadium every 15 minutes. She said it doesn't cost anything to park, but it costs $2 round-trip to ride the shuttle.

Dempsey said there are a few parking areas on campus that sell and reserve spaces in advance. However, she said, the waiting list varies from two to three years for the closest spaces and starts at one year for others.

Neal Stone, assistant director of OU Department of Public Safety, said campus parking laws are somewhat different on game days.

He said under a provision of the parking requirements, which was oriented around football, OUDPS suspends parking enforcement other than safety-related parking violations for home games.

"In other words, permit violations of all kinds are overlooked with the exception of handicapped parking violations and a few others," Stone said.

"The majority of parking tickets that we would hand out on a game day would relate to vehicles parked blocking a curb cut, a fire hydrant or something of that nature - where we would probably also take impound action," he said. "Traffic citations are also practically nil. We contact a number of folks, but most of them are simply confused and need some help to get where they want to go."

Stone said he realizes scattered areas of road construction could cause additional problems and offered a suggestion which he said might make the situation easier.

"The best advice for someone unaffiliated with the university is to park at Lloyd Noble Center and take the shuttle," he said. "It really does work. I've seen parking at the Lloyd Noble and ridership of the shuttle increase. Quite a few people find that convenient."

Stone said there are about 3,500 spaces available at Lloyd Noble and available spaces at the Duck Pond parking area off of Brooks Street in Brandt Park.

"Brandt Park itself is not open for parking, but the Duck Pond parking lot is available on a first-come, first-serve basis as part of the paid system," he said.

Another parking alternative fans sometimes take advantage of, Stone said, is to buy space in the front yard of a Norman resident living close to the campus.

Stone said several residents living in the vicinity of the campus make good money vending their front yard for parking space, although it violates city ordinance. He said problems arise when an over-zealous person or scam artist sells a front yard which is not his.

Captain Phil Cotten of the Norman Police Department said he does not think there will be a problem making it through town to parking areas.

"Things should be better because of all the newly completed construction, the renovation and widening at Lindsey and 24th and, of course, the opening of Lindsey and Jenkins," he said. "Both lanes of Main Street should be open."

Cotten, Stone and Lt. Jack Holloway of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol encourage fans to use Sooner Road, which is a four-lane highway that turns into 12th Street, to get into the Norman area on game day. Stone also added that Western Avenue, which turns into Robinson Street, is a good route into Norman from the Oklahoma City area.

"Jenkins from Highway 9 is also a good approach to the campus and Lloyd Noble," he said.

Cotten said the traffic flow could be lessened if more people prearranged parking plans and carpooled with friends. He said it also helps to become familiar with the area before game day.

Holloway said the OHP does not anticipate closing any exits off of Interstate 35 but cautions drivers to use extreme care when travelling to the game.

"There is an increase in accidents on game day. Mostly it's just people not watching what is going on in front of them. That accounts for 90 percent of the wrecks that we have on football days.

"My advice is that people buckle their seat belts, slow down, watch the traffic around them and in front of them, and they need to wait until they get home to celebrate or drown their sorrows - whatever the outcome of the game is.
hello there & you too