After complaining for the last two years about drivers not yielding to pedestrians using campus crosswalks, I was pleasantly surprised to see my concern addressed.
Bright yellow caution signs and clearly visible white lines were recently added to the crosswalks near North Hall, the E-Dorms, and freshman hill. Many drivers now actually slow down at these crosswalks as they properly should, and students can safely cross them with less fear of reckless leadfoots hitting them.
For some strange reason, though, the Institute chose to not implement these changes at the other crosswalks on campus, most notably the two crosswalks between the Quad and the Union and the crosswalk between the Union and the Admissions building.
Additionally, the crosswalk signs that were put in place do not address the issue of drivers blocking people from using them by parking in the crosswalk. This particular problem frequently occurs on the crosswalk by the Quad.
Safety on campus is an issue that should never be improved incompletely. The administration would not choose to install new lighting in only a few places on campus, and ramps would not be added to some buildings but not others. Maintenance personnel would not decide to only re-paint half of a building during renovations—at least I hope they wouldn’t—so,why should our campus crosswalks be any different?
I hope that it does not come down to more people getting struck by cars at the other crosswalks before the Institute decides to renovate and install signs at all the crosswalks on campus regularly used by Rensselaer students. Students crossing the streets should not be forced to live in fear of suddenly getting hit by a vehicle moving at 10 times their speed.
