Living on a college campus during the busy school year makes you appreciate the peace of your suburban hometown. The streets and sidewalks of East Lansing are constantly filled with floods of people. Students take over campus during the prime hours of class time and with all this traffic can come accidents.
Road traffic typically slows in speed and volume when on campus, but miscommunications tend to emerge between drivers and students. The main cause of these disputes are when or who has the right of way.
Pedestrians do not always have the right of way in certain cases. However, they always take precedence when a driver comes across one while driving.
They have the right of way in crosswalks and controlled intersections. Pedestrians cannot do whatever they want just because they have this right although many act as if they do, putting themselves in dangerous situations.
Walking around on campus I have noticed that vehicles do not like to stop if they can avoid stopping for the pedestrian. Speeding by a pedestrian and not allowing them to walk in a crosswalk is improper road etiquette and could get someone killed.
Campus would be a lot safer if both pedestrians and drivers came to an understanding about how this system works.
Drivers, a pedestrian should always be allowed to walk across the street and should never be the one left waiting. Even if someone jaywalks, despite it being illegal, allow them to cross in a safe environment with your vehicle halted for safety. Remember you have a giant vehicle surrounding you, pedestrians only have their bodies.
College campuses are always busy, even in the summer, so drivers should always be prepared for random pedestrians crossing the road.
Pedestrians, be aware of your surroundings. If a car has stopped and is waiting for you to cross, do not take your sweet time. I have witnessed so many times when pedestrians, usually students, are listening to music or are distracted and a car is honking their horn or trying to get them to cross.
Don’t be oblivious to life, look both ways and notice when cars are approaching. Also you cannot deliberately block or stop traffic, so when it is your time to cross get moving.
All of this applies to the ever gutsy bicyclists as well. Bikers tend to speed through crosswalks without acknowledging oncoming traffic or if they are even allowed to go.
Too often than not, I see drivers and pedestrians yelling at each other or flipping the bird at one another because they improperly communicated and both sides felt threatened.
Both sides become extremely aggressive and this leads to unnecessary road rage.
Politeness could go a long way in these exchanges. If both sides were considerate and understood their place on the road then a lot of accidents could be avoided.
