Crosswalk Concerns

I sent the following e-mail to Mr. Gerken on Monday. The original was sent on Thursday.

Mr. Gerken,

In light of the recent accident at 13th & Union, I was wondering whether you'd received my e-mail. I've attached it below in case it failed to arrive in your Inbox.

Mr. Gerken,

This evening I was walking to the Campus Center, and as I approached the four-way intersection near Mohn Hall, I noticed a van approaching towards me from the Quad. As we reached the intersection, he slowed to a stop, so I stepped out onto the crosswalk. I was perhaps halfway to the other side of the road when he began to turn towards me. Once I was directly in front of the van, I was startled when the driver honked his horn and yelled, "Get out of the way!"
I would like you to know that I was very upset and angered by this incident, particularly since state law states that vehicles must yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. However, this is not the first time this sort of occurrence has happened.
The day we had icy weather but no cancellations, I was honked at by a woman at the intersection near Public Safety. Although I was in the crosswalk, I must admit I was paying more attention to not falling down the dip in the sidewalk to cross the road than I was to whether or not cars were nearby.
Earlier in the year, also at the Mohn intersection, I was a few feet into the crosswalk when a woman driving down Richmond towards N. 13th St. stopped at the intersection. However, instead of waiting for me to cross, she turned onto Linden St. towards Mohn and I was forced to retreat onto the curb to avoid being hit. Unfortunately, several of my friends can also relate similar incidents.
I am writing because I am concerned for my safety (and that of my friends). I no longer feel safe crossing the streets on campus, and I feel that I should be concerned with more important things (like maintaining a high GPA). However, I realize that this is, in part, our responsibility to be alert and cautious.
I would like to know if anything could be done to deter people from running stop signs or not yielding at crosswalks. Would it be possible, perhaps, to have local police drive around campus once in a while? I feel that cop cars always immediately make people rethink their driving habits.

Thank you,
Betsy Gordon



--
Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

This was his reply, sent today:

Hi Betsy,
Thank you for your email and your concern. I, too, am very concerned about peoples attitudes and actions regarding our students. As you have seen over the past few months, we were able to obtain pedestrian crosswalk signs. After Public Safety put those in the streets, we began receiving complaints from some of our neighbors which eventually wound up in the office of both the Mayor and local State Senator. I then was visited by a member of the City Police Department and the City Engineer who informed me that I had to present a plan for approval, prior to installing the signs. No one at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation where we obtained the signs ever told us that we needed any approval. Just today, we put together a plan and will be presenting it to the City. I have also requested that the City re-paint the lines on the crosswalks. I am going to make contact with the Police Department and request that their Officers spend more time in our area, specifically in the area of the crosswalks.
Again, thank you for your concerns and for taking the time to contact me. If you have any other suggestions or requests in the future, please don't hesitate to stop in and see me.

Mr. Gerken

I like the quote at the end of your email.

The neighbors were complaining? Most likely because it's the neighbors who drive irresponsibly and speed through intersections entirely too fast. If I were as poor of a driver as some of them are, I suppose I would hate to have glaring reminders that I'm breaking state law, too.
This is a complete outrage. Just Friday evening the friend of an Albright student was hospitalized following a hit-and-run at a crosswalk just off-campus.