Jaywalkers' herd behavioris irrational and dangerous

To the Editor:

It amazes me how intelligent college students can at times be so incapable of making reasonably intelligent decisions. I would like to talk about the Lindsey Street crossing on the west side of the South Oval. This is the crossing that the majority of students use.

Several days ago, a young lady was standing next to me at the curb, waiting for the signal to cross. A slight gap between traffic opened up, and a male student on the other side of the street decided to quickly scurry across, even though traffic had the right of way. This is called jaywalking, and apparently this was the signal the young lady was waiting for. As a car quickly approached, she stepped out into the street without looking at the light or even checking traffic. The car had to ride hard on the brakes to avoid hitting her. As she jumped back onto the sidewalk, she looked around and exclaimed "but......why did he cross?"

The naivete amazes me. It's jaywalking, it's illegal and it saves me time when I am late to class. Look, I don't want to initiate a crack down on jaywalking across Lindsey street, because I enjoy it's utility, but every time that one person decides to assume a personal liability and sneaks across, the entire herd that is standing there waiting interprets it as a cowboy call to charge out into the street. I see it every day. Traffic will have a green light, and the whole large herd of boys and girls yakking amongst themselves will suddenly step out into the street, forcing all traffic to stop.

This isn't to say that the drivers of the cars in that area have been much wiser in their decisions. Something else I observe almost daily? Traffic's signal for the crossing will turn yellow, and the next thing you hear is a car downshifting. You watch them accelerate to 40-plus mph, so that they may have the opportunity to stop at the next red light less than 100 feet away. This is the perfect complement to the behavior of many of the students waiting to cross. It is the perfect environment for a fatality.

To each of you, please: Know when people are breaking the law, and decide for yourself if you want to break the law.


- Christopher Morales

Accounting senior
hello there & you too