Pedestrians should be aware of surroundings

You’ve seen them before. You might be one.

You know, the iPod-wearing, cell phone-talking zombies crossing in front of traffic whether it’s their turn or not.

These sidetracked pedestrians tend to be lured to the other side of the street just as the little man on the crosswalk signal stops glowing white. They’re also more likely to be the cause of a traffic accident than the bicyclists and walkers who don’t have a phone glued to their right ear and headphones covering the other.

Now, the “look both ways before you cross a busy intersection” speech should be known by now, but sometimes people are too caught up in their daily lives to pay attention to the little things, such as crossing the street. And this particular editorial might seem silly, but perhaps a refresher course is needed.

MSU police Officer Doug Smith estimates that the traffic department responds to about five accidents each week — all involving collisions between cars and either pedestrians or bicyclists.

Now, five accidents per week might sound like a low number for MSU considering the large number of pedestrians on campus.

Students might even be surprised to hear that the number of collisions are in the single digits, since, on any given day, campus holds more than 40,000 people. With such a high volume of pedestrian traffic and the large number of motorists, frequent collisions between cars and bicyclists, cars and pedestrians or pedestrians and bicyclists might be expected.

But over the course of a year, those five dispatches each week can really start to add up — and MSU police officers’ time should be spent on more important calls than collisions on campus.

For about nine months of the year, students flood the streets of MSU and East Lansing. If there are about four weeks in any given month and officers respond to about five accidents per week, then officers can be dispatched about 20 times in one month for crosswalk accidents.

Parking ramps located on the edges of campus, such as the Communication Arts and Sciences ramp and Ramp 6 near Morrill Hall, help ease vehicle traffic to the outside of campus, which opens up the middle of campus for pedestrians and bicyclists.

In the meantime, remembering to be courteous and to look both ways before crossing a street can reduce your chances of becoming one of those zombies lurking on campus and, in turn, decrease the number of accidents.

Being courteous and looking before crossing should be obvious phrases by now, but they’re too often forgotten as a pedestrian picks up his or her phone and drops his or her attention from the road.

As you cross a street, stay alert and be aware of what’s going on around you because it can help prevent you from getting smashed by an unaware driver, and it can prevent a call to the police. MSU police should be able to focus their energy and resources on something more productive than traffic collisions.

So, pay attention.

Published on Thursday, October 18, 2007