Adapting to an Urban Campus

Since the first automobiles arrived on campus UK students have been searching for a place to park.  Often the streets around campus became so congested (and still do) that the streets seem more like parking lots.

In the late 1850's Rose Street, seen below to the right and parallel to Limestone, was little more than a quiet country lane.

By the 1920's automobiles had become a major issue on campus as more and more students owned cars.  The student's cars caused headaches for the Deans of Women and Men because it decreased substantially the control they had over their students.  As problematic was the challenge of where to park the increasing numbers of cars each year.  In 1929 the Board of Trustees issued the following rules for automobiles:

Parking on Administration Drive, 1938

By 1964 the Kernel editors were describing campus parking as intolerable.  Every new construction project on the ever expanding campus eliminated parking spaces.  In 1964 the number of student parking spaces were cut in half.

Traffic on Rose Street, both cars and pedestrians became a growing concern.  President Herman Donovan petitioned the city to install "an electric traffic light" at the intersection of Rose and Washington Avenue.  As dormitories and the medical center developed east of Rose Street the number of reports of cars striking students crossing the road increased dramatically.

By the 1960s some people began calling for the closure of Rose Street.  When UK suggested this solution to a Lexington official in 1962 they countered by suggesting that Rose Street be widened to four lanes through the campus.  Surprisingly, after acknowledging the danger to students crossing Rose Street, Kernel editors backed the four lane plan.

Kernel, 1964

Over the past several years portions of Rose Street have been closed to through traffic making the street much safer for UK students.  The recent proposal for UK to "swap" land for control of campus streets could be the beginning of the university's ability to continue enhancing campus safety while at the same time making the campus a more pleasant place to study and work.

Kernel, 2013

Campus parking?  Making progress but still a work in progress!