As both a driver and a pedestrian, I see Dan Allen Drive as a chaotic, unsafe lawsuit waiting to happen. And this is saying something, as I am a New Yorker and have experienced my share of rush hours and busy sidewalks. Dan Allen ain’t one of them safe streets, if yuh know what I’m saying.

With all the news about WolfAlerts and the efforts to prevent tragedies like Virginia Tech or Northern Illinois, we’ve managed to forget the day-to-day aspects of campus safety like traffic incidents.

You see, from the fourteen or so years I can remember being an intermittent pedestrian in New York City, I can remember maybe two or three incidents where a taxi, bus or car had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting someone. And on the two University Scholars’ Program trips to New York I went on, one of the big issues that was stressed was for everyone to look before they cross the street.

There is one fundamentally huge difference between the streets of Manhattan and Dan Allen Drive — pedestrians in Manhattan pay attention!

This is a ridiculously common sense idea that many pedestrians on campus need to keep in mind. And I know, pedestrians have the right of way. But the right of way doesn’t stop that idiot who ran a red light from clipping your car. And the right of way certainly doesn’t prevent people from forgetting how to drive at an all-way stop either.

So what it comes down to is the laws of our legal system versus the laws of physics. The laws of the legal system can change. The laws of physics…not so much. It’s a sad fact, but a 15 ton bus moving at 15 miles an hour has a lot more trouble stopping on a dime than a 150 pound person walking at two miles an hour.

Yet this very simple fact is lost on so many pedestrians on campus. Why? Because they are not paying attention!

Is it that difficult for people to turn their heads and look to the left, then to the right, and back to the left again? Does the cost of a higher education include forgetting a lesson we all should have learned as preschoolers? Because from the number of times I’ve had to brake suddenly while driving on Dan Allen when a few people just walked in front of my car, it’s one of those reasons or the apparent drain on common sense that comes with using a cell phone or MP3 player.

The University should also do its part, as some people cross the street as if they were royalty and, as part of paying homage, all vehicles must slam on the brakes to avoid the regal pedestrian. Simply evaluating the costs of installation for a crossing signal system at the pedestrian crosswalks located on the speed bumps on Dan Allen Drive is a step in the right direction.

Campus safety is important, and we have to protect students from both disturbed criminals and speeding drivers.

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