The school year is about to end. Tempted by the weather and the wish to procrastinate, you hop into your car, roll down the windows and head toward Grounds to cruise for a little bit. Then you realize that it is not 4:30 yet, and the gate in front of the Newcomb bus stop is still down.
The impeding gate arms located in front of Newcomb and the Chemistry Building are frustrating for many students, but they are required to help relieve traffic on Grounds, according to Rebecca White, director of Parking and Transportation Services.
"We need the gates to reduce the car versus pedestrian conflict during the times when the pedestrians are mostly around," White said.
Third-year Engineering student Ricky Yau, a UTS bus driver, said he doesn't find the gates frustrating when driving.
"I think they are absolutely useful for the flow of traffic," Yau said.
Not all students, however, said they feel the same way about the red-and-white-striped obstacles on Grounds.
"It's very frustrating for first years to describe to parents or visitors to tell them how to get to the parking lots close to the dorms when they can't take the main road," first-year College student Katie Hanundel said.
The gates are down from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., allowing the passage of only a handful of select vehicles.
"The UTS fleet, police cars and some of the house and facilities management cars are allowed to pass," White said.
But the gates don't stop certain vehicles from breaking through.
"People try to drive through them," White said. "The gate arms are broken at least once or twice a week."
When this occurs, the UTS drivers notify the Parking and Transportation Services which quickly repairs the gates, she said.
"We have a supply of gate arms in the back of the operations cars, so we fix them up quickly," White said. "But if only one of them is broken, then we open up both the gates. We don't want to tempt people coming the other way to switch lanes because of the absence of a gate."
On occasion, the gates also cause minor accidents. Michelle Jackson, a first-year College student, said she witnessed such an accident.
"I saw someone leaning on their bicycle, thinking that he was going to miss the [gate arm]" Jackson said. "But he wasn't leaning enough so it hit him on the chest, and he fell."
You might hate the gates for preventing you from cruising around, or you might find them helpful in saving you from the wrath of speedy cars. But one thing is for sure -- the gates are not going anywhere.
"The gates were here when I was here in 1980," White said. "They even predate me."
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