Ole Miss Gameday Parking, Traffic, Shuttles

By Errol Castens/Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

OXFORD – Oxford loves company, especially during football season, but it’s a bit like a gracious hostess who lives in a charming but cramped cottage.

Its compact footprint and the narrow streets in some popular areas make common pre- and postgame rituals of trickling traffic, poached parking places and hefty hikes between cars and campus.

This week’s home-opener, when the University of Mississippi hosts the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, will be a logistical dress rehearsal of sorts.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but this is a good test run because it’s a non-SEC game,” said Jimmy Allgood, Oxford’s emergency management director, who oversees game-day logistics. “I would hate starting the season with an SEC game here, but this one with Louisiana-Lafayette won’t bring so many out-of-state fans. It’s a good chance to test our systems.”

Last year, several new traffic tactics were implemented at the beginning of the season, and it took three games to sift the useful ones from those less helpful.

“We had most of the kinks worked out by mid-season,” Allgood said. “This year the only big changes are more shuttles and more shuttle parking. Using the new Oxford High School instead of Oxford Conference Center gives us about 700 more parking spaces for shuttle passengers.”

Parking on and around campus has become increasingly restricted, for specific reasons. Decades ago, tailgating in the Grove actually meant parking your station wagon among the trees and serving food from its tailgate until a particularly rainy weekend in the 1980s left the Grove a muddy mess and made it permanently pedestrian.

Fans routinely parked on four-lane Highway 6/278 until a pedestrian trying to cross the road was struck and killed. Sidewalk parking on campus was common until a recent litigation-inspired crackdown.

Today, the University of Mississippi has 11,623 parking spaces on its campus – some 200 less than last year and some 800 less than next season, after the parking garage is finished next to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and the basketball arena that is also under construction.

Those spaces not reserved for dorm residents are limited to donors on game days, leaving most football fans to seek other options.

One option is paying to park in private or semi-private spaces. Several churches near the campus make their parking lots available on game days; so do the Chamber of Commerce (with a different charity selling its spaces each game) and some businesses along Jackson Avenue.

Shuttles operating from three hours before kickoff until two hours after game’s end are a convenient option for many fans. Ole Miss offers free shuttles from the Jackson Avenue Center (Old Oxford Mall) to the corner of Chapel Lane and All-American Drive. The city of Oxford also offers $5 round-trip shuttles that drop off near the stadium from four parking locations:

• The new Oxford High School – Charger Loop, at the end of Sisk Avenue off Highway 7;

• Oxford Intermediate School (formerly Oxford Middle School) – Martin Luther King Drive at Washington Avenue, off Jackson Avenue;

• Oxford Activities Center – Price Street at Molly Barr Road; and

• Northwest Community College – Belk Boulevard.

“It’s free parking and a $5 round-trip,” said Oxford Parking Director Matt Davis. “You get dropped off and picked up right next to the stadium without paying for on-campus parking.” Bulky items such as tents, large coolers and strollers are prohibited on shuttles, as are weapons, pets and open or exposed alcohol.

Visitors have two one-way options for getting to campus. The city’s Double Decker bus shuttles people from the Square to The Grove before games for free; it does not operate during or after games, but it’s a short walk back to downtown.

On game days, Oxford-University Transit (OUT) Red and Blue routes (full fare $1 per ride) bypass the heart of campus.

“The closest place for people to access the Grove or the stadium would probably be at Sorority Row and Jackson Avenue,” said OUT Manager Ron Biggs.

Not everyone who comes to Oxford on football weekends actually goes to the game, of course. Some find exploring the Square much more to their taste. Recently installed parking meters aim at keeping storefront parking available to those shopping and dining downtown rather than serving as a park-and-hike setting. Rates are $1 per hour.

“The parking rates are the same, but there’s a three-hour limit on game days,” Davis said. “The fines are $50, $75 and $100, which is different from other days. We like for people to come to the Square to shop and dine and enjoy, so we want to keep parking available for them – not for people to take up storefront parking all day while they’re on campus.

Davis noted, however, that Oxford continues to offer several hundred free spaces without time limits in five city-owned lots, most of which are only one block or less from the Square.

For more information, visit www.olemisssports.com/gameday or follow @RebelGameday on Twitter. On Saturday in Oxford, listen to 1630 AM for updates.