I'm normally a pretty quiet person.
I keep to myself, and when something bothers me I tend to let it go and keep my mouth shut. But this time, I just can't help myself; I feel I need to confront the apparent lack of consideration students give to the vehicle traffic on campus, especially the buses.
Sometime within the first few weeks of the semester, we all usually share a similar experience. You're sitting in a classroom, getting accustomed to your new professor's lecturing style and wondering which of your classroom neighbors you'll be hanging out with by the end of the semester. Then suddenly someone comes tiptoeing through the squeaky classroom door, interrupting the lecture and drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Sorry," they say, "my bus was late." Why is that? It's a pretty good bet that the cause can be traced to that bus being delayed at some point on its route, most likely on campus, by having the bad luck to get caught in that 15-minute window between class times and having to sit and wait for the thousands of students hurrying from one classroom to the next.
"Now, wait just a minute," you might say. "Who are you to say that's wrong? I have the right to be in a crosswalk any time I want, and the cars and buses have to stop for me!" That's absolutely true, but it is my humble opinion, that rights can be abused just like privileges can. Now, the law of pedestrian right-of- way means, of course, that any vehicle has to stop for any pedestrian who has stepped into a crosswalk. This makes the streets safer for walking, especially downtown where streets are narrow and traffic can be heavy, or when crossing four lanes of Main Street traffic. The Town of Blacksburg has even produced a public safety video, "Yield: It's Worth the Wait" (you can find it on YouTube), in order to make sure that both drivers and pedestrians understand their responsibilities when they're on the roads.
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The video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV4oi8SxZV4
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Speaking on crosswalks here on campus, I was surprised at how many people approach the road and go out into the street without even looking. Sure there's a crosswalk, but that doesn't prevent a car from running you over. They are putting their lives into the hands of some random driver and hoping that they stop. But regarding folks riding the bus to school, thank goodness there is more than one bus. Taking an earlier bus could prevent all the problems of showing up to class late. BT ever look into having buses arriving minutes before the15 minutes of madness in between classes?
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As a student who has been in the bus situation every day and on the crosswalk I fully agree with this article. The sad thing is many times I've observed as I wave or motion to the bus to go in front of me along with any cars if the crosswalk is temporarily clear when I'm at it and then just before the bus get's a chance to go some clueless oblivious student male or female with headphones or their heads in the clouds just promptly step out in front of the bus and the driver has to stomp the brakes and wait another few minutes. Such a shame. I'm surprised there aren't more collisions and accidents with such clueless students.
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I've thought about this exact same thing, and thought about if adding a crosswalk light would be a good idea. I think it would help stop students. You can wait 20 minutes before a herd of students finally stop multiplying like bunnies.
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