Visitors driving on the University of Massachusetts campus for the first time may find themselves swerving and stopping to avoid collision with pedestrians crossing the street.
After several pedestrians were struck last year, police are attempting to curb the number of collisions and two UMass students conducted a survey to bring the issue to the forefront.
Only 27 percent of pedestrians who use the crosswalk near the University of Massachusetts Southwest Residential Area on Massachusetts Avenue look for traffic before they cross, according to a study conducted by two UMass senior mathematics and statistics students.
The two students, Dan Ron and Amy Jackson, performed the study for the Statistics 501 class they were enrolled in last semester.
"We as a group decided that we almost run over people when we're driving," Ron said. The Massachusetts Ave. crosswalk, which links the Southwest Residential Area to the central campus, was chosen because it is the busiest at UMass, according to Ron.
"One of us counted the total number of people walking by," said Ron. "The other one counted how many of them actually looked or made any effort to turn their head before they crossed."
Some UMass students were already aware of the problem from personal experience. "It's crazy how some people will just walk out into the street without looking," said senior Seth Quinn, who drives through the campus regularly.
"I've almost gotten hit a couple of times," said sophomore Southwest resident James Brown. "I've seen it happen to other people quite a few times too."
The UMass Police Department created a pilot pedestrian safety program designed to help manage the Mass Ave. crosswalk. The program's plan called for UMPD cadets to monitor the crosswalk on Mondays and Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. However, the UMPD ran into scheduling conflicts with the cadets.
"We were somewhat skeptical about how many hours we could get from the student cadets who do attend classes during the day," said Patrick Archibald, Deputy Chief of the UMPD. "As a result, we try to keep it down to two days where we try to keep two cadets out there, and we've had some success."
The program is funded by a $75,000 grant that was received in the Fall of 2005 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to improve pedestrian safety.
Ron has seen a police officer at the crosswalk only once.
"I was thankful he was there because he told the people to stop crossing the street so cars could go by."
Brown sees police cadets monitoring the crosswalk once every couple of weeks, but still takes the necessary precautions when crossing the streets on campus. "I am very cautious because where I'm from nobody stops for you," Brown said of his hometown, Boise, Idaho.
"I think it's a problem [that pedestrians don't look for traffic]. People could get hit," Brown said. "I think they should have cops out there whenever class is going on."
In March, 2006 UMass sophomore Olivia Simpson got hit by a car on Eastman Lane near the Totman gymnasium. Simpson was one of six people hit by cars last semester.
"I haven't heard anything about this program at all," Simpson told the Daily Collegian in November. "The only thing I noticed after I returned to school from the accident was that there were bigger and brighter crosswalk signs on campus. Even with bigger signs, there's no guarantee the driver sees you. I did everything I was supposed to do before crossing, but it didn't help me."
Simpson isn't sure that the UMPD's plan to increase pedestrian safety, which includes passing out pamphlets about crosswalk awareness, will be effective. "If someone handed me a pamphlet about crossing the street, I wouldn't take it seriously. I think telling people what they're doing wrong isn't going to work. It's more about managing the way roads are set up on campus."
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