New crosswalk ineffectively placed
University, city need to combine walkways to help students, staff

Sometime last October, I noticed that a City of Fort Worth traffic construction crew had painted a new crosswalk at the south end of the intersection of Bowie Street and South University Drive. The existing crosswalk at the north end of the intersection, which was in dire need of repair, was simply sandblasted away.

I found this event rather curious since the new crosswalk seemed to only benefit the pedestrians who intended on visiting the retail strip located near the intersection, whereas the old crosswalk served as a major crossing point for students going to classes on the south side of campus.

Diana Vazquez, Fort Worth Traffic Operations Coordinator, said the City of Fort Worth worked with Willet Stallworth, associate vice chancellor for Plant Management, and she determined the safest decision for students would be to do away with the old crosswalk and establish a new crosswalk on the other side of the intersection.

Additionally, all cars on Bowie Street would be prevented from turning left onto University, which would keep them from driving over the new crosswalk — thus reducing the amount of oncoming traffic pedestrians would have to negotiate.

At first, this reasoning seems to make sense. However, on second thought, it is apparent that even though the new crosswalk has been created to keep students out of harm’s way, a majority of students will continue to use the walkway designated by the old crosswalk.

Basically, when you have two minutes to get to class, are you going to go well out of your way and use the new crosswalk or going to use the quicker approach and simply go straight across the street where the old crosswalk existed? I would be willing to bet that most students would choose the second option.

Therefore, it is imperative the City of Fort Worth and TCU not compromise students’ safety by trying to ignore one of the major walkways of the campus.

On another note, it appears this situation does not solely apply to students, but to Physical Plant workers as well. I have noticed several occasions this semester where Physical Plant workers in their Kia and Daihatsu transport vehicles were crossing University Drive at the intersection in question through the old crosswalk.

It is quite obvious these workers are not trying to purposely break the law, but instead they are forced to cross at this point because the new crosswalk does not have ramp access points on both sides of University Drive like the previous crosswalk afforded.
While this factor may have simply been an oversight by TCU and the city, it still remains as an argument as to why the old crosswalk should be reinstated.

Just last year, a car struck a student while he was crossing the street using the old crosswalk. This accident happened in the evening, and the fact that the old crosswalk was deteriorating to the point that its reflective material was difficult to see in low light might have contributed to the accident’s occurrence.

It seems rather absurd that instead of repairing the reflective material on this crosswalk, the city destroyed it and placed a new one on the other side of the intersection. However, it might have been more cost effective and smarter to just repaint the old crosswalk.
To please the students, the city and TCU, the best solution for this situation would be to reinstall the old crosswalk, and use it in conjunction with the new crosswalk. Moreover, ramps should be installed at the entry points for the new crosswalk to benefit Physical Plant workers and any students using wheelchairs. At TCU, safety should be paramount, and this little step can do nothing but further that goal.

Robert Davis is a senior computer science major from Garland.
He can be reached at (r.d.davis@student.tcu.edu).

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