2008 Woodie Awards
"Caution: Raised Crosswalk," Indeed!
Megan Borkes
Issue date: 1/29/07 Section: Opinions
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It's about 1:30 in the morning and I'm just settling down in my dorm room, ready to go to sleep. Just as I start to drift away into "dreamland," as it were, I hear a noise outside my window that sounds very similar to the sound of someone driving up onto the sidewalk right in front of my building. But I know that this is not the case. All of us in Rex Beach Hall know the sound well, and as it happens again minutes later, I mumble quietly to myself, "Someone bottomed out on that freakin' speed bump again."
I suppose the correct term is "raised crosswalk," and it really is the more appropriate term. A speed bump is just a simple line of raised curved pavement, relatively small to the veritable "Mt. Rollins" that the massive obstruction outside of Rex Beach has so lovingly been nicknamed. Students and their parents have been rocked - quite literally - by this new addition to Holt Avenue since Winter Intercession started and the dorms started to fill up again. "Happy Holidays," indeed. Ever since, there have been nothing but complaints about the crosswalk. Heck, even the Dominos Pizza deliveryman had something to say about it.
So why did this addition even need to happen? Safety? I doubt it. Sure, the argument could be made that it forces drivers to slow down before they end up speeding around the cul-de-sac that rounds out in front of Lake Virginia, but let's think about this hypothetically for a moment, shall we? It's late on a Friday night and someone had a little too much to drink. Despite the various warnings against drunk driving, that person decides to drive himself or herself back on to campus. As they head down Holt, the darkness - plus the skewed perception that comes with drinking - sets in and takes a toll on the person's vision. As they approach the "speed bump," despite the huge, eyesore of a sign that reads in big, red letters "RAISED CROSSWALK," it does not register with this individual that there is a reason to slow down. Perhaps the person fails to even notice the sign in the first place. Suddenly, the car is vaulting over Mt. Rollins and the driver loses control due to the shock of being thrown about by such an obstruction. In the worst case scenario, the car goes careening onto the patio of Rex Beach, or even into the line of parked cars on the other side.
I suppose the correct term is "raised crosswalk," and it really is the more appropriate term. A speed bump is just a simple line of raised curved pavement, relatively small to the veritable "Mt. Rollins" that the massive obstruction outside of Rex Beach has so lovingly been nicknamed. Students and their parents have been rocked - quite literally - by this new addition to Holt Avenue since Winter Intercession started and the dorms started to fill up again. "Happy Holidays," indeed. Ever since, there have been nothing but complaints about the crosswalk. Heck, even the Dominos Pizza deliveryman had something to say about it.
So why did this addition even need to happen? Safety? I doubt it. Sure, the argument could be made that it forces drivers to slow down before they end up speeding around the cul-de-sac that rounds out in front of Lake Virginia, but let's think about this hypothetically for a moment, shall we? It's late on a Friday night and someone had a little too much to drink. Despite the various warnings against drunk driving, that person decides to drive himself or herself back on to campus. As they head down Holt, the darkness - plus the skewed perception that comes with drinking - sets in and takes a toll on the person's vision. As they approach the "speed bump," despite the huge, eyesore of a sign that reads in big, red letters "RAISED CROSSWALK," it does not register with this individual that there is a reason to slow down. Perhaps the person fails to even notice the sign in the first place. Suddenly, the car is vaulting over Mt. Rollins and the driver loses control due to the shock of being thrown about by such an obstruction. In the worst case scenario, the car goes careening onto the patio of Rex Beach, or even into the line of parked cars on the other side.
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