Motorists and Pedestrians Must Share Campus Roads

Large black and yellow pedestrian crosswalk enforcement signs have appeared on campus warning drivers to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Until we figure out ways to separate cars from pedestrians, however, I’d like to suggest that some motor vehicle road enforcement signs could also be helpful.

Pedestrians have to realize that walkers and drivers are, for now, sharing the same physical space.

Allow me to offer two examples of pedestrians in need of some enforcement.

Recently, I was a passenger in a car of a colleague who made the mistake of heading through campus on Cameron Street at around noon. A torrent of students flowed in both directions across the street. When a natural break started to occur, students whose eyes were not glued to text messages on their phones, hurried to fill the gap. As if allowing cars to pass would violate some fundamental life force. After five minutes, with cars backing up and no end in sight to the stampeding herd, I leapt from the car, entered the crosswalk, and like Moses ordered the sea of pedestrians to part, waved through a dozen cars, and then scurried to rejoin my friend who had pulled over in front of Memorial Hall.

What’s so hard about realizing that cars are sharing the space on Cameron?

On Columbia St, University gardeners have beautifully landscaped the area in front of the schools of Pharmacy and Public Health. There are two crosswalks with signals controlled by pedestrians to stop cars. One connects the School of Nursing to the School of Pharmacy. About 200 steps further south along Columbia, a second leads from the School of Public Health to the health sciences library. Instead of using either of these convenient and safe crosswalks, many pedestrians have trampled the greenery in front of the School of Pharmacy.

The other day, I actually watched a white-haired, white-coated professorial type climb over the retaining chain there for safety, trample some helpless shrubs, and head across the street.

Maybe some day we’ll have domains just for people and others just for cars. But, until we do, we have to learn to live with each other. Responsibility is, excuse the expression, a two-way street. It’s good for health and good for the environment for pedestrians to recognize and respect the reality of cars.

— Lew Margolis

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