And in the town of Sackville, New Brunswick...people were concerned. In 2007 there was a study of Pedestrian Safety at the crosswalk between North Side and main campus. It really isn't a good situation: cars have to wait a long time for students, especially in between classes. Some drivers decide they'd rather speed excessively through the crosswalk than than have to wait. Asking the school to consider spending just over $1,500 a year doesn't seem unreasonable. But, I suppose it could be worse...you could be driving in Boston.
Mt. A administration rejects proposal from town to hire crossing guard at Main Street intersectionBy Jessica Parisien
Last week, Mount Allison administration officially rejected a proposal from the town council to hire a crossing guard for peak pedestrian times at the Main Street intersection between campus and Jennings, the university dining hall.
The crosswalk has been a safety concern for the town for five years, ever since the dining hall moved to its current location from the other side of campus.
The issues surrounding the crosswalk include student safety and angry motorists who experience a large amount of wait time, especially during peak pedestrian times.
A report was prepared for the Town of Sackville in November 2006 by a group of students in a third year geography class taught by Dr. Michael Fox.
This report was entitled "An Analysis of Pedestrian Safety and Vehicle Wait-Times at the Mount Allison Student Residence Crossing on Main Street, Sackville," and was broken down into four sections: introduction/problem statement, background research, the results of the study, and discussion and recommendations.
"The student research team did an excellent job studying the situation, including an analysis of other university solutions and verifying their analysis with traffic safety experts," commented Fox.
In the report there were four recommendations to solve the issue at the intersection, the first being to convert this crossing to a school zone crossing and employ a crossing guard during peak pedestrian periods. It was suggested that the guard be employed for a 12-week period from September to December and a 12-week period from January to April, having the guard work Monday-Friday for the following times: 8:15 a.m - 9:30 a.m, 11:15 - 12:30 p.m, and 4:15 p.m - 5:15 p.m. This means someone would be hired at minimum wage for 17.5 hours per week, amounting to a total cost of $3091.20 per year. This cost, it was reported, would be shared between the town and Mt. A.
Mt. A's VP Administration, David Stewart, upon announcing the university's decision not to a enter into an agreement with the town on the crossing guard issue, said, "We just didn't think it was going to be an effective way to deal with the concerns."
One of the students involved in conducting the report, Sarah Blake-Dickson, said she was a bit surprised with the university's decision.
"With such a minimal cost to this, it's kind of surprising that they wouldn't at least try it," she said.
Fox echoed her opinion on the decision.
"It is a shame that the university appears to have no interest in dealing with this issue," he said.
Fox added, "I must say that I have been very impressed with the care and responsibility the Mayor and Council have shown on this important safety issue. Their desire to take action through a number of low-cost measures makes great sense."
The issue of the town hiring a crossing guard without the financial assistance on Mt. A's part will be discussed at council's next meeting.
However, perhaps the town should consider implementing one of the other three recommendations made in the report. One such suggestion is installing advanced crosswalk signage and warning systems, as other universities have done. The other recommendations are holding an annual student and public education campaign on crosswalk safety issues and continuing monitoring and enforcement.
Yeah, I really hate crossing there! I'm surprised that the university didn't try it as well. Then again, with the university opening old residences, turning lounges into three person rooms (which I might add, takes away from those of us who actually used the lounges previously, for you know, lounging and the like), and accpeting many more students each year... I'm not really surprised that they won't spend a little cash on us. They seem to want more and more money, yet what has that accomplished for the students? Sure, we have the new student center, but now we have ridiculos residence accommodations, larger class sizes and meal hall is constantly crammed. Does more student enrollment give the school more government funding? I'd like to see them do something decent with the money they get, like protecting the students from getting hit by cars, or falling down the stairs when they fail to clear/salt/sand the ice. I can't believe school wasn't cancelled in that ice storm last year! Watching other students in wheelchairs and crutches have to travel to class all day while trees fall down because of the weight of the ice and with an inch of ice coating every surface, that's insane! How about they make the campus more wheelchair accessible? That'd also be great. There are so many things the school needs money for! Seriously, before they accpet more students, how about they start considering the ones they have?
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