Unlike many people who live off-campus, I walk to class everyday. My route brings me past Farm Road pond, across Grant Egbert Boulevard (GEB) and through the Park School parking lot. But the crosswalk on GEB has been giving me a lot of trouble all year. You know those signs – “must stop for pedestrians in crosswalk”? There’s one near the Gardens and Emerson, one up in the Terraces, but none on my (and many other students’) route up to campus. But the same rules apply: Pedestrians have the right of way in the crosswalk.
I’ve noticed many fellow pedestrians are reluctant to cross the street when a car is coming. They’ll wait for all cars to pass, then advance. I guess I’m audacious when I don’t break stride going from the path next to the pond to the parking lot. Doing this has caused a lot of drivers to honk at me, swerve and give me the finger, or get their car spit on.
Driver’s ignorance has made me so upset and fearful for my own safety that I’ve considered stopping at Public Safety and requesting that a sign be put in the crosswalk. Then, I realized, I’m a driver too. I stop for pedestrians in crosswalks – hell, I’m one myself most of the time. Calling attention to the intersection of Farm and GEB wouldn’t be helping anyone – it would just be getting more drivers in trouble on a campus where, when you’re behind the wheel, you better hope a campus cop isn’t anywhere near and that he has no reason to pull you over.
What’s going on here? The ignorant drivers aren’t the problem. And besides, it’s fun, as a pedestrian, to exercise control over a car.
