By Kadie Gurley
Is the campus doing anything to make the commute more convenient for students and faculty or are they just letting us deal with the horrible traffic situation on our own?
On Monday, some students and faculty were late to their classes because of the obstruction occurring on the CA-22 West freeway heading toward 7th Street.
The construction continued from there and on to Margo Ave. and Campus Drive.
The traffic that this construction caused made some teachers cancel classes. This could be a big deal as it might affect the scheduling in their teaching plans.
Many students were late to class as well. As students, being late is often embarrassing because you are pretty much put on the spot. Also, being tardy can decrease your grade depending on the instructor.
In a recent Daily 49er article, tips were shared to help make students’ commutes to campus easier.
These tips are usually pretty useful, especially for those who drive. However, the amount of waiting that I had to endure on Monday while on the freeway was very unpleasant and inconvenient.
Since the first class I had was in the morning, I decided to take Uber rather than the bus to school.
Several people, myself included, were stuck in traffic congestion from the freeway all the way to the CSULB library.
Students and faculty wait to enter campus amid traffic jam caused by construction. Photo credit: Kadie Gurley
It typically takes me about 20 minutes to get from home to campus, but the traffic on Monday caused my commute to take over 50 minutes.
I ended up being 30 minutes late to my first class of the semester. This situation makes me upset because I woke up early and got ready in a timely manner, but still ended up tardy because of the jam caused by the ongoing construction.
It is ridiculous because the Parking and Transportation Services are active on social media, yet they did not make a statement or update students about the amount of traffic there would be across campus. The only thing that was posted on Monday was information about free campus shuttle services across Long Beach State.
With this construction already being active before the school year began, students should have been more informed in advance about the road closures rather than having to deal with them the day of.
Also, I found it odd that I did not see much parking enforcement or traffic control. It is the first week of school. Therefore, the campus administration should know that they need staff to regulate the congestion of vehicles. I witnessed a construction worker somewhat controlling it, but that is not his job.
This construction worker had to direct drivers in and out of the parking lot rather than the campus patrol staff. Photo credit: Kadie Gurley
We should have received an update on the construction going on in one of the most busy areas around the school so it could be avoided to go that route.
It is not fair for students to be extremely late to class and for teachers to have to cancel because of traffic and a lack of instruction.
Whether they drive, use ride share apps or take the bus, campus services should be providing students and teachers with some sort of direction regarding the status of Long Beach roads and traffic.
I feel like there were definitely ways that this campus traffic congestion could have been prevented. No one should have to deal with this kind of chaos on the first day of the semester.
I hope the administration looks into hiring people to monitor the traffic and guiding students, faculty and visitors to less impacted parking structures instead.
