Parents of college-bound teenagers often dread saying goodbye to their children as they move away from home for the first time. On a campus of 33,000 – 8,000 of which live on campus – finding a parking spot close anywhere near their child’s dorm can be a source of trepidation as well.

Though traffic snarled around Dan Allen Drive for most of the afternoon on Friday as several thousand students took advantage of the newly instated early move-in. Streets such as Cates Avenue were blocked off, Saturday morning move-ins went off without a hitch.

Tom Kendig, director of transportation on campus, watched his handiwork from his bicycle on Thurman Drive. N.C. State Campus Police chief Tom Younce, who stood watch on a Segway next to him, “came out to observe” as well.

“This is very similar to how we’ve operated it over several years now, except the one change was we moved in about 50 percent of the folks [Friday],” Kendig said.

Mike Weber, who moved his son Kyle, a freshman in First Year College, into his dorm on central campus, said he was shocked at how efficiently Transportation handled the busy day.

“I thought it would be mobbed, Weber said. “I thought there was going to be gridlocked traffic and wall-to-wall people and cars, but I was amazed that there was nobody really here. There were two spots [next to each other] when I parked.”

The Webers beat the afternoon rush and parked around 9 a.m. Signs indicated each space was allowed to be occupied for no more than 45 minutes, but Weber said he didn’t need nearly that much time to move all of Kyle’s belongings up to his room.

“There were plenty of people here to help and I had a dolly cart, which helped a lot, and we got it all up in one trip,” Weber said. “We spent the last 40 minutes organizing everything.”

Kendig said most of the staff N.C. State Transportation employs to administer parking tickets was otherwise engaged this weekend, blocking off lots set aside for move-in and directing traffic at major intersections.

“It seems to be going very smoothly right now and that’s a very good sign,” Kendig said with a laugh. “Talk to me again at 1 p.m. and we’ll see how it is.”

However, 1 p.m. came and went without incident. Traffic in Harris Lot, which is smaller than most parking lost and contains few spaces despite its proximity to three of the largest dorms on campus, was flowing freely.

Jaclyn Goldsmith, a freshman in business management, and her parents came down from New York to move her things into Metcalf Hall. They split the move-in between two days, traveling back and forth from a hotel, and Goldsmith said traffic was far worse on Friday.

“It was more crowded yesterday,” Goldsmith said. “We couldn’t really pull in. There was a line to pull up and they closed it off for a while. We had to park all the way down in the Dan Allen Deck and walk up.”

Kendig also mentioned how campus staff and older students with permits that don’t go into effect until Wednesday were displeased with the temporary changes.

“It went as well as can be expected,” Kendig said. “The problem with Friday was the employees are still on campus and we had to work around them. That’s a little bit of a challenge.”

To make room for those moving in, employees and upperclassmen were directed to other lots, such as West Lot behind Lee Hall, the Dan Allen Deck and Fraternity Court, which is across Western Boulevard.

“The staff was allowed to park in their regular spaces [Friday],” Kendig said. “If this push for having more people come in on Friday continues, we may have to re-think that.”

Kendig and his staff will discuss how they may improve the experience next year in a meeting after the weekend finishes. He expects to make changes, especially if move-in continues to be spread over several days.

“We do a big de-briefing after the event with all the staff and we’ll do that with this one and see how it goes,” Kendig said. “We’ll make some adjustments for that I’m sure.”