Most students can relate to the stress of standing at the bottom of the Saxon Steps, rapidly looking both ways on Gayley Avenue and toward the goal of Landfair Avenue, waiting for oncoming traffic to cease. At all hours of the day and night, students make the crossing from the Saxon Steps to the apartments. This is not the only poorly designed element of our campus that presents a danger to students. With the rise in the issuance of jaywalking tickets to students, campus designers and university police should realign their priorities to reflect increased prevention, rather than the punishment, for unsafe transportation corridors in the Westwood area.
Our campus is predominantly for pedestrians. Without proper bike paths and in light of the recent switch to the dismount zone, it is clear our campus is prioritizing a walking environment. Policies should therefore be in place to make this environment safe and to make walking in the surrounding Westwood area feasible as well. Jaywalking tickets are frequently issued on the Hill, on De Neve Drive, as well as in Westwood Village, demonstrating that the UCPD feels these areas are still high-risk in terms of crossing. Since jaywalking continues to be an issue, the school should work actively with the Westwood community to reach the root of the problem ““ safer campus and city planning.
Students jaywalk for a variety of reasons, many of which can be traced to poor planning. Currently, many of the lights at popular crosswalks remain green unless students press the crossing button. In an area that has vast amounts of pedestrian traffic, this seems ineffective. Also, in many areas, crosswalks do not exist in places where they should. Bruins United has worked to get a crosswalk at the bottom of the Saxon Steps. This should not be an issue that student government has to push: city planners and police alike should be prioritizing this safety issue. Though it is helpful that UCLA students are actively working to join the Westwood Neighborhood Council, UCLA authorities should recognize safety concerns and work actively to solve them without students’ continually drawing attention to them.
It seems that the “˜quick-fix’ methodology has been adopted by UCPD and other school officials. Rather than expanding bike infrastructure to accommodate the interest of bikers and skaters, the school just bans the activity to ensure safety. Similarly, rather than creating preferable crossing areas for students, the police ticket jaywalkers. Punishing students for Westwood’s poor infrastructure, and the school’s own rapidly changing construction pathways, does not address the real issue at hand ““ making improvements for safety. Also, if the issuance of tickets is increasing, it is clear that students are not changing their ways due to reprimand.
Yes, jaywalking is dangerous. Offenders are putting both their lives and the lives of those in oncoming traffic at risk. While the reasons for the illegality of jaywalking are not up for debate, the vigor with which police issue these tickets, along with their hefty price tags, are. Rather than issuing tickets regularly, police should give warnings, or grade the price of the ticket according to the number of occurrences. Installing stop signs in more heavily used pedestrian crosswalks is a viable alternative to tickets. The installation of diagonal crossings at the intersection of Westwood Boulevard and Le Conte Avenue, and at the intersection of Broxton Avenue and Weyburn Avenue, are examples of planners actively working to increase the walkability of Westwood.
If the state is so concerned with student safety, why is it that elementary and state schools have large school crossing-zone signs and posted speed limits outside school premises, while Westwood has none? These are easy ways to make Westwood more walkable.
As of now, students who want to walk to Landfair Avenue from Saxon Steps have to either make the 0.2-mile round trip to and from the crosswalk on Veteran, or the same distance to the crosswalk by the De Neve Evergreen building. Students face this same issue when trying to cross Gayley Avenue to the start of Levering Avenue. They must either cross at Le Conte Avenue or down at Weyburn Avenue.
Jaywalking has its obvious dangers, but many other activities are far more threatening to the overall safety of the community. The UCLA community needs to address the real problem at hand: creating a safer infrastructure for students rather than punishing them for UCLA’s confusing construction, or the lack of appropriate crossings in Westwood.
E-mail Mier at smier@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.