By Ayana Bessard, Staff Writer

Published Nov. 5, 2014

For the college students who may have come from more rural areas, learning how to properly and safely cross a busy street can pose quite a serious challenge.

Although, to some of us city-folk, it may seem like crossing the street should be something everyone learned how to do before entering elementary school, we should understand that some people have never actually had to cross a busy street; of course, until they’ve arrived in bustling Greensboro.

It’s common for larger colleges and universities to have pretty high-traffic streets running through their campuses, and the traffic doesn’t stop just because students have classes to attend.

And although UNCG could certainly benefit from it, we don’t have anyone designated to stop traffic and walk us across the street at every busy intersection lacking a stoplight, like they do with the kids in neighborhood across form an elementary school.

I contend that the main problem with the safety of crossing the street is the lack of knowledge about just how unsafe jaywalking can be.

For example, this past Halloween night I was attempting to get some food from Sonic on Spring Garden street, and the street was completely blocked off by an ambulance and the police.

I asked an officer if I was able to pass through, and he informed me that someone was jaywalking and was then hit by a car, causing them to be severely injured.

If this person would have followed correct procedures for crossing the street, the entire incident could have been avoided.

For this reason, a higher emphasis needs to be put on how to correctly cross the street without putting yourself at a high risk to be hit.

Of course, it’s easy to be careless when crossing the street; especially when you’re in a rush.

Anna Camden, a freshman on campus, has a class in the Curry building which is at the end of College Ave, right across Spring Garden street.

She admits, “Sometimes if I’m running late, I don’t think twice about crossing the street. I know it’s dangerous, especially at the intersection, [at Spring Garden and College ave] but I’m focused on getting to my class on time.”

It’s extremely tempting to just dart across the street when you only have a minute to get to class, but let’s remember that it’s extremely unsafe.

You should always make sure you’re crossing at a crosswalk designated for pedestrians.

If anything, this at least ensures that a car won’t be surprised to see you out on the street.

Not to mention, some of these cars are completely oblivious to the 25 mph speed limit on the portion of Spring Garden that belongs to the UNCG campus.

I can safely say that during my four years at UNCG, there was one time that I experienced an officer restricting students from jaywalking and enforcing the proper way to cross the street.

The officer was on Stirling St., right in front of the EUC.

This was a truly great idea, but one has to wonder why he wasn’t on a street with higher traffic, like Spring Garden or Tate? 

With that being said, it’s definitely important to make sure students are taking proper procedures when crossing the street, because its for their own safety.

The lines can easily get blurred, with right-of-way rules and other exceptions. 

But you can get all of these hazy regulations cleared up by simply looking up pedestrian laws on the North Carolina Department of Transportation website.

Pedestrians should always come first, especially on a college campus. 

However, we have no control over what the driver of a car decides to do, so pay attention and stay safe.