The city of Thibodaux and University officials are hoping the city ordinance prohibiting parking on the side of Bowie road will promote pedestrian safety.
The city council of Thibodaux passed a city ordinance on behalf of the University to prohibit parking, and the University recommended the speed limit be reduced to 15 mph, Eugene Dial, vice president of student affairs, said.
The University owns most of the part of Bowie road that passes through campus, so making it 15 mph like the rest of campus can ensure the safety of pedestrians, Dial said. The ten mph difference in speed can be the difference between a student being hit by a ten ton car or being safe.
“This change was made in regards to safety for our students. Congestion and speeding down the road made it unsafe for parking,” Mike Davis, assistant vice president for facilities, said.
The Harold J. Callais Memorial Recreation Center is scheduled to open soon, and the University expects a significant increase in the amount of pedestrian traffic from the 900 students living in the residence halls going to and from the center all times of the day, Dial said.  
According to Dial, if students continue to park on Bowie road they will be issued either a citation from the university or from the city of Thibodaux. As of now, students only receive citations from the University.
The University chose to make the change based on the safety of its students, Dial said. This is not the first time a change like this was made. Years ago the city council made the same change for Audubon road. They prohibited parking on the side of the road because it was not safe for students to open and exit their vehicles.
Along with the opening of the recreation center will come 200 more parking spaces, Dial said. These spaces will be open to any driver with a University decal.
The next possible step to more parking spaces will be to hard-surface places that already exist on campus, including shell lots like the one by Calecas Hall, Dial said.
The problem is not that campus lack parking spaces, it is that students want to park next to the building, Dial said.
Some students are not happy with the change in the parking regulations regarding Bowie road.
Blake Richard, business management junior from Thibodaux said,  “I think it is ridiculous after all these years, students have been parking on Bowie road with no problems. Why did all of a sudden signs reading “no parking” appear on the road?”  
 “Now as a business college student I have to park all the way by the stadium, which is completely the opposite side of campus from my classes,” Richard said.  “I would just like to know why and who it is that decided to make things difficult for me to get to my classes.”  
Davis said there is not a parking problem on campus but some students prefer not want to walk far distances.  
“I have surveyed the campus Monday through Friday, three times daily at the busiest class times and there have been no less than 200 hundred available parking sports on both sides of Guidry Stadium,” Davis said.