Letter to the Editor: October 11, 2010

I read your recent article, “Jaywalking Costs,” about pedestrian safety at UVU. I was glad to see the university taking steps to promote the safety of its students.

Imagine my surprise, however, when I was confronted earlier today by a presumably well-meaning driver of a rattling clunker with a megaphone mounted on the hood, loudly informing me that I was crossing the street illegally.

Were I to follow UVU’s strict “crosswalk only” policy, the street where this incident occurred would become Uncross-able. Un-traversable.

There are no interior crosswalks traversing this road. Not even at the access road intersections. Can you imagine? Here, at UVU, emerges a veritable Great Wall of a street barring access to vast swathes of student parking spaces.

If the sidewalk indicates access, but there is no crosswalk to reach it, where do our students access this sidewalk? They don’t.

Unfortunately, it looks as though UVU would prefer students to walk in the street rather than cross to the wide and much safer sidewalk. The school has taken to educating jaywalking offenders with a vengeance – offenders that they have created.

Until the situation is corrected, I conclude that I will forever be illegally crossing streets at UVU. I’m no expert, but maybe we could use fewer megaphones, and more attention to safe access of student parking lots.

Shersta Gatica
UVU Student