Pedestrians dodge unruly motorists

Take one step. Wait. Two steps. Step back. Truck passes. Step up. Squish! UTC has always done a great job of making students feel safe, despite previous armed robbery incidents. But lately it has been like a game of Frogger to get across Douglas Street to Frist Hall unharmed.

For example, a student waited for a car to stop at the sign Monday before starting to cross, and the car still continued to turn and cut him off before he could get to the sidewalk. Half the time when crossing Douglas, students can reach out and touch the vehicles whose drivers decide not to wait for cross-walkers.

Even the drivers who do decide to stop and let students cross the street will often carefully roll up to the edge of the crosswalk, urging students to walk faster. And there is the occasional horn honk from the driver who is late to class and does not have time to wait.

One of the more interesting and dangerous scenarios is being caught in the middle of the crosswalk as two cars decide to turn on either side of the cross-walkers.

However, these occurrences would be more understandable if security vehicles did not spend so much time chilling in the dorm parking lots, waiting to give the unwary student a ticket.

At The Echo, we agree that ticketing is a good and necessary source of money for parking services. We understand the need for parking tickets and security at night, but when the officers in their vehicles seemingly have nothing to do besides pretend to be on a stakeout, we have to conclude they can be redistributed to the crosswalks.

After all, it is probably in UTC's best interest to let a few illegal parking jobs slide rather than have a student seriously injured on a campus crosswalk. But until priorities can be reassessed, students should get in the game and hope to make it to class. Remember to look both ways before crossing the street and definitely do not try to carry coffee across Douglas Street.