REXBURG – With move-In weekend in full force for Brigham Young University-Idaho comes the anticipated traffic congestion for local drivers.
Thousands of students and their parents come flooding into town trying to get situated and settled for thefirst day of school on Sept. 11. Some 21,000 students were reported to be living in Rexburg during the Fall semester of 2022, and 2023 numbers have yet to be released.
April Gould from Gilbert, Arizona is in town helping her daughter move in. She says it’s been a busy start to her weekend beginning with her plane ride.
“The traffic was pretty crazy… Allegiant was full of… It was really cute, Mom’s and Dad’s and kids. It’s pretty obvious what everyone’s here for…It definitely seems like the town is coming back to life, there’s a lot more traffic and stuff, but it’s so upbeat. Everyone is just in a good mood,” Gould says.
Billy Plank, the support services supervisor for public safety on campus says traffic heavy conditions begins outside of city limits.
“For us it starts with the Idaho Department of Transportation, (and) the Idaho State Police out at I-15, and Highway 20 in Idaho Falls, and then it stretches up to Rexburg,” Plank says.
Public Safety has measures in place to route traffic through and around campus to keep congestion minimal. Signs have been placed on 7th South and roads running parallel to the university routing drivers through on-campus housing. On top of that Madison High School delayed their start Friday morning to mitigate traffic for high-school drivers, while traffic control took place at all three highway exits coming into town with the Rexburg Police Department on patrol.
“When the people get off at the Rexburg exits then it’s the Rexburg City Police Department (that) controls the traffic,” Plank says.
Plank says his team was on patrol and assisting with move-in day on campus.
“Our students go up and support the housing office by directing traffic so that when people pull in, they help them unload their student’s belongings to get them in,” Plank says.
Plank says the bustle of the students is something he doesn’t mind, and he’s happy to endure the move-in weekend.
“We have more traffic that we’ve had during the break so getting used to that, but if it wasn’t for the students we wouldn’t be here, and we’re here to support them, so having the traffic issues for one weekend it’s not a big deal for us, we get used to it,” Billy Plank says.
