The left lane of South Shaw Lane served as an extension to parking Lot 39 - the pay lot between the International Center and the Engineering Building - on Thursday for more than an hour as cars waited for the lot’s entrance gates to open.
An offline computer system resulted in malfunctioning gates and missed appointments.
Parking Facilities Supervisor Katherine Mateer said the gates wouldn’t open because of a computer malfunction. Computers monitor parking lot capacity through an online connection with the gates and other equipment. Although cars were leaving the lot, the computer was offline and could not count the amount of cars inside, which prevented the gates from automatically opening.
“When you’re dealing with telephone lines, communication lines and computers, sometimes you lose connection,” Mateer said.
Russ Norris and Jodi Baunoch were late for a computer instruction seminar at Erickson Hall.
Norris, outside speaking with Baunoch, had his car parked in the street.
“I’m parked in the road, but it’s not like anyone is going anywhere.”
Baunoch and other drivers were blocked in the driveway and were forced to wait for the gates to be fixed.
Rehabilitation counseling graduate student Sharla Kimmel was the first person in line at the parking lot gates.
“This is very disappointing,” Kimmel said from the driver’s seat of her Jeep. “It’s an hour that’s been wasted. I could have parked in downtown East Lansing and walked here.”
Kimmel missed an 11 a.m. review session while waiting.
Mateer said she first noticed the malfunction when she was checking the status of the lots. Students called to report the problem minutes later and were explained the situation, she said.
Mateer said it then took about 20 minutes to get the computers back online, at about 12:20 p.m.
The Lot 39 connection with the computers has been offline before - the last time about a month ago, she said.
Domingo Medina drove from New Haven, Conn., with his wife for some meetings, including one with an adviser to discuss a dissertation.
“We’ve missed many meetings with many people,” Medina said, “And we’re nervous we’re going to miss more than the one we already did.”
Communication senior Nichole Stephens was 15 minutes late to work because of the parking troubles.
“This has happened numerous times over four years,” she said. “But I’ve never had to wait this long.”
MSU police Capt. Bernard Burns, head of MSU parking, said the cause for the disconnection is unknown.
“We don’t know why it went down - sometimes it just happens,” Burns said.
“People didn’t have to wait in the road; they could have just driven down the road to another lot. That’s a way traffic gets backed up.”
