Jaywalking At UTC Is A Disaster Waiting To Happen

  • Wednesday, December 6, 2017

The speed limit on McCallie Avenue and MLK Boulevard is 25 miles per hour. There is a reason for that. These roadways have become constant crosswalks for six or eight blocks through the UTC campus.

As the university has spread across these main traffic arteries, students have began to ignore the crosswalks and traffic lights put there to protect them. At class times a deluge of students pour out from between parked cars the full length of the campus. They ignore don't walk signs and cross anyway.

Today three young ladies stepped out from behind a stopped CARTA bus as I was approaching in the opposite direction in the pouring rain. I was driving at 20 mph with a line of angry speed demons behind me. You girls got lucky, I'm old and drive slow, especially in the rain. I'm not sure many regular commuters could have stopped in time. 

I'm afraid it's just a matter of time before someone rushing to class will meet someone rushing to work in a giant SUV.  Should we funnel the students into the marked crosswalks or install speed humps to slow the traffic to the speed limit? Both maybe? Someone needs to get ahead of the accidents waiting to happen. 

Harry Presley

Opinion
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