Column: One year later, not much safer

One year ago today, one of my closest friends, Peter Duong, stepped in front of a car, was struck and died.

After his funeral days later, I wrote my very first column for the Indiana Daily Student arguing for several methods to prevent other students from having their lives cut tragically short by the lack of a safe pedestrian environment on campus.

It was my hope then that the tragic and preventable death of Peter and the pain that the campus, his family, his friends and I were all feeling would at least serve as a catalyst for changing our campus’s attitudes and practices toward pedestrian safety.

It is now my hope that the anniversary of his death can do the same for us again.

Since that day one year ago, the University and the City of Bloomington have worked to create safer environment for the tens of thousands of pedestrians on campus.

The Bloomington Campus Traffic Safety Task Force was established by Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson to evaluate our campus’s pedestrian safety situation, and it came up with several potentially beneficial recommendations, including the installation of several crosswalks at locations where there are frequent pedestrian crossings.

Enhanced crosswalks have been installed in three of these locations on campus, including the exact site where Peter was killed, which I argued for in my first column.

Enhanced crosswalks include features that force drivers to slow down and provide a safe spot in the center of the street for pedestrians to stand while waiting for traffic to slow.

UNFINISHED WORK

Although these crosswalks are a good thing, IU should not consider their work done.

There is too much left incomplete.

Less than a week after Peter’s death, three other pedestrian-vehicle incidents were reported on campus. I bet this wasn’t just a freakish week to cross the street; the coverage was simply higher because one of our students was killed earlier that same week.

How many unreported accidents have happened this week?
IU has a pedestrian safety problem, a problem that a few new crosswalks is not going to fix.

We need more changes, now. There are a number of ways that the University could reduce the potential for more deaths on campus beyond simply adding three new crosswalks.
 
REDUCING CONGESTION

The most effective way to reduce the risk of pedestrian deaths is simply by reducing the number of cars that are on campus at any given time.

In the early 1990s, a transportation plan was proposed that would increase the transportation fee charged to every student. This fee would fund an increase in the number and frequency of buses and increase the number of bike racks on campus. I strongly suggest that the University reevaluate that proposal.

Another way to reduce vehicle congestion would be based on a proposal by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: charging people to drive.

I propose that the University and the City of Bloomington charge everyone driving immediately next to or through campus on 10th Street, Third Street, Jordan Avenue, Fee Lane and Seventh Street a small fee to access these roads during peak pedestrian hours.

Charging an amount as small as $.25 or $1 would be effective at increasing safety and could raise significant revenues for the University that could be used for increasing public transportation opportunities.

Congestion pricing would push a significant percentage of the traffic in and around campus onto roads further away from the pedestrians and would dramatically increase the safety of students and professors when they cross the street on campus.
 
CROSSWALK SAFETY

Increasing the safety of the crosswalks that we have and redesigning them to prevent future tragedies should be a top priority.

Pedestrian-activated stop lights, for example, are a highly effective way to reduce the risk of future student deaths.

Close to my high school there was a light that was activated only by pedestrians that required all traffic to stop to allow individuals to cross. We found it to be highly useful.

Raised crosswalks — which are basically large speed bumps that double as a crosswalk — are also excellent because they force vehicles to slow down whenever they enter a pedestrian crossing zone.
 
A SYSTEM OF SAFETY

The first week of school, police officers were stationed at crosswalks around campus to pass out flyers about how to cross the street. Frankly, I find that a bit insulting.
Almost all students know exactly how to cross the street safely; that isn’t the problem.

The average pedestrian or driver crosses the street or drives through a crosswalk in a perfectly rational and safe way. The problem is not individualized; the problem with campus safety is that the system of safety that we have does not give individual drivers or pedestrians incentive to walk or drive in the safest way possible.

We need to redesign the way we cross the street.

Remodeling a few crosswalks is not enough. By looking forward to new possibilities, we can help to nurture an environment of safety that could have prevented the death of one of my closest friends.

E-mail: zammerma@indiana.edu