A 20-year-old student weighed down by a backpack full of Latin homework versus a 2,000-pound car cruising at 40 miles per hour. Does that sound like a fair fight?
This is a daily occurrence students face on the streets surrounding Hillsdale’s campus and needs to be remedied. A student is hard-pressed to cross the road without engaging in frenetic calculation about the speed of oncoming cars in hopes to reach the opposite curb unscathed.
Although it is the law that cars and even bicycles must yield to pedestrians, Hillsdale drivers don’t seem to notice. This increases the danger students face when walking to and from class every day.
The entire country instructs budding drivers to yield to pedestrians. This is not to say that pedestrians are the keenest of commuters. Often times they text or check Yik Yak as they step into the crosswalk, disregarding traffic. Still others hurl themselves across streets at any opening, crosswalk or no. Either way, Michigan traffic code and physics acknowledge the vulnerability of on foot traveler, forcing drivers to assume responsibility.
Although jaywalkers assume the risk of collision, law-abiding pedestrians ought to enjoy the safety offered by the crosswalk.
Soon the seasons will turn, and the cold will add to the pedestrian’s weakness. Freshmen who trek from MacIntyre or Olds deserve the polite (and legal) right of way to cross the road into campus so they can sooner find safe harbor in a heated classroom building.
Drivers must acknowledge their walking peers in those frantic hours of the morning when they desperately peruse campus for those few parking spots. As winter approaches, recall how much longer the morning walks to class stretch for those on foot. The city shouldn’t need a yield sign to remind drivers of their advantage over walkers — just practice some common sense.
