Recent incidents make it seem as if Boston University students face danger on all fronts around campus. Fatal apartment fires and car accidents, as well as serious injuries sustained in similar apparently freak occurrences, and an attempted sexual assault on the nearby C Line are more than enough to shake up students and prompt the administration to reinstate safety-awareness events and expand their scope.
In response to one of the most important safety issues on campus — traffic — BU needs to get the word out to more than just pedestrians and bicyclists. Cars traveling on Commonwealth Avenue west of Kenmore Square are known to speed on the strip, after breaking free of Kenmore’s congestion. While safer pedestrian habits and awareness of certain laws — those against jaywalking, for instance — may reduce the risk of an accident for students and others walking around campus, BU should go the extra mile and encourage safer driving habits for those who have the size, mass and safety features to make it through pedestrian-vehicle accidents: the driver.
Simple tools may inform drivers of their unsafe practices. Roadside speed-detection devices can easily clock a car’s speed and display it for the driver. A driver’s actual speed, displayed next to a speed-limit sign, might prompt drivers to slow down.
So that drivers know how fast they are allowed to drive, BU must work with the city of Boston to install some permanent speed-limit signs along Commonwealth Avenue. With high-speed Storrow Drive and the Mass Pike just a few turns from Commonwealth Avenue, drivers can easily forget they are re-entering city streets where the standard speed limit applies. Although drivers should know the assumed citywide speed limit is 30 miles per hour, extra reminders could not hurt.
BU could even take a cue from highway departments that inform drivers of the consequences of their unsafe driving. Signs on the side of the road, at least during Safety Week, to inform drivers of the accidents that do occur might go a long way. “Two students hit in September” or other such sobering slogans might just get the message across.
In the long run, BU must find a way to make sure drivers who are speeding or driving unsafely are ticketed. With the BU Police Department unqualified to issue speeding tickets on campus and the Boston Police Department focusing on other areas of the city not already under some security force’s jurisdiction, too many reckless drivers make it down Commonwealth Avenue without fear of legal consequence.
Unfortunately, safety days have passed quietly the last two semesters. Pedestrian safety is an issue that bears repeated mention on an urban campus. Safety Week organizers should make sure the message about safe crossings for students makes it all the way to the drivers who hold the power in a pedestrian-car accident and who are sometimes at fault.
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