AU students shouldn’t fear crossing the street, especially on our campus. Still, they should be aware of an incident that occurred Tuesday on Massachusetts Avenue’s southern crosswalk. A car struck an AU student who was walking from the Berkshire Apartments toward the Nebraska Avenue parking lot. The driver was going around 15 to 20 miles per hour. The student rolled over the hood of the car and landed on the street. He was not seriously injured.
This particular incident was minor, but it raises new and troubling safety questions. Pedestrian accidents are serious business. There were 15 of them in D.C. in 2008. Often, the people involved in these incidents do not walk away unscathed. So, as AU readies its next campus facilities plan, which will cover traffic and transportation issues, the university should think about how it can work with the D.C. Department of Transportation to reduce these accidents.
There are some common sense solutions that should be considered. Ward Circle is a disaster and needs some sort of redesign. Drivers and pedestrians find it a nightmare to navigate. Someone should deal with that before anyone else gets hurt.
It may be that our streets need more signs. Maybe they need flashing yellow lights to warn drivers of an upcoming crosswalk, as Student Government President Andy MacCracken believes. He has called on the university to lobby D.C. to install flashing yellow lights during classes. This certainly can’t hurt.
There are other problems that could be fixed, too. Little things. For instance, there is a small tree located off Ward Circle that impairs students’ vision as they watch for cars coming down the street. It sounds silly, but this actually makes a different — especially late at night.
Everyone understands that traffic is difficult to negotiate. But there must be action that AU administration and D.C. officials can take together to insure that students can get safely from sidewalk to sidewalk.
