Knoxville City Council approved UT’s proposal to install parking meters on campus prior to fall quarter on July 29, 1976. The Traffic and Parking Authority had requested that UT seek permission to install meters as a means of controlling short-term parking. The original 24 meters cost UT $3,000 the first year and $12 per meter the following year, with UT collecting from the meters and policing them. The original locations of the meters were around UT dormitories.
In summer 1990 the City began installing parking meters as part of a plan to limit long-term parking on specific sections of Stadium Drive (now Phillip Fulmer Way), Andy Holt Boulevard, Volunteer Boulevard, UT Drive, and Fraternity Park Drive. The City delayed the installation following a request in January 1991 by the UT Traffic and Parking Authority and Vice Chancellor Philip Scheurer that meters not be installed. The City modified some of the meter locations but began again installing meters in February 1991, noting that UT had previously requested that Knoxville add short-term parking meters on campus to increase the turnover of parkers.
Over the winter break following fall semester 2002, eighty-six parking meters were removed from three streets. Thirteen parking meters were removed from Andy Holt Avenue, ten from Melrose Place, and sixty-three from Phillip Fulmer Way. The removal on Andy Holt Avenue and Melrose Place was requested by Knoxville Area Transit (KAT), the operator of the university’s transit system, to reduce congestion, and the university requested the removal of the meters along Phillip Fulmer Way from Cumberland to Peyton Manning Pass. UT had intended to make the section of Phillip Fulmer Way from Andy Holt to Cumberland two-way, but the City recommended against it. The overriding reason for requesting removal of the meters was in keeping with UT’s Master Plan and the effort to make the campus more pedestrian friendly.