“Jaywalking is a common thing to see on campus, and especially on Exchange street. In light of all the recent muggings around campus, students have complained that the University of Akron Police Department has nothing better to do than harass students who are committing such a minor offense.”
“

Jaywalking is a common thing to see on campus, and especially on Exchange street. In light of all the recent muggings around campus, students have complained that the University of Akron Police Department has nothing better to do than harass students who are committing such a minor offense.

In reality, the UAPD is actually doing the right thing. Jaywalking may be a minor crime, but it occurs so often on and around campus that it is very dangerous.

Everyone who commutes knows how crazy some of their fellow students can be when trying to get to class. Almost everyone who has driven a car around campus has probably nearly smeared somebody who has tried crossing the street during a green light and outside of a crosswalk.

It starts out like this: Freddy McFrogger finds himself late for class in Buckingham. Instead of using the crosswalk, which is equipped with light-up signs that say when it is safe to cross Wolf Ledges, he decides he’s going to test out his cross-country worthy set of legs.

Taking a direct route from the Mary Gladwin building, he cuts through the parking lot. Instead of jogging the extra 20 yards to make it to the safe crosswalk, he has decided to bolt across the street and hope to get across, as if there’s an extra life waiting for him on the other side.

That’s when it happens.

Penny McPimpmyride is actually making a left turn, because she doesn’t have a stop sign. She can’t see where Freddy is, and blazes on through assuming that there is a clear road ahead of her, because by all means there should be.

Less than a second later she has to slam on her brakes because Freddy, unlike the popular frog he’s named after, just freezes in the middle of the street because he can not get out of the way fast enough.

The UAPD is justified in giving out these warnings, and they were a long time coming. As a nice gesture, the UAPD doesn’t seem to actually be fining anyone yet, which is good.

For now, yelling at students through a megaphone and issuing written warnings is enough. Hopefully that will be enough of a deterrent to keep someone from getting mowed down.

It is not even a ridiculous request, as there are adequate crosswalks all throughout campus.

These warnings are definitely not a waste of time, and are important to everyone’s safety, whether they are the jay-walker themselves or the driver of a vehicle.

While they may seem less important than focusing on deterring muggings, they are certainly still important in keeping bones from being broken and hoods from being dented.

“