Do the drivers of Harry Agganis Way even know there is a crosswalk?

Let’s be serious here, folks. The driving on Harry Agganis Way is a problem. I sarcastically pointed this out previously but we really need to address this bluntly so even the drivers can understand.

Students have been complaining about the drivers on Harry Agganis Way for a while now.

“There are certain times when cars aren’t going to stop, or you don’t think they’re going to stop when you’re crossing,” said Megan Gregitis, CGS ’19.

There is a crosswalk sign that the school/BU Police Department put up to make drivers aware that there is a crosswalk.

It’s the typical crosswalk sign you see anywhere, but the drivers on Harry Agganis Way don’t seem to be aware of it. They barrel down the side road like it’s an interstate highway and yet they act surprised when people try to cross the street.

“One time I was walking across the street with one of my friends and this car screeches to a stop, the guy yells at us, and the guy I was with slaps the pedestrian sign and yells at the driver,” said Riley Overfield, CAS ’18.

In addition to the crosswalk sign on the actual road of the crosswalk, there are also crosswalk signs on the side of the road facing each direction the road goes in alerting the drivers that there is a crosswalk that pedestrians will cross. These, apparently, drivers also disregard.

“The crosswalks are better marked than most, and we have purchased signs that stand on the crosswalks for pedestrians. They get blown over from time to time or run over by vehicles. We replace [them] as needed,” said Deputy Chief Scott Pare of the BUPD.

So to catch up everybody that’s confused, the university has put many signs in place to alert drivers that there is a crosswalk in front of the very large dorm building on a college campus. Most of us do, in fact, still look both ways before we cross the street, but when we start to cross the street, some drivers don’t stop, and some don’t even slow down.

“Whenever I walk across the crosswalk, I’ve almost gotten hit. They just go without any caution, especially the Uber drivers,” said Jonathan Glenn, SMG ’17. It’s frankly a little scary.

Going along the reckless abandon that the cars seem to be driving with, their speed contributes to this problem.

“Sometimes they just drive too fast, they should drive like 10mph. There are literally kids crossing it all the time so you can’t just zoom down the road. I think the speed needs to be lower. There’ve been a couple times where there are cars coming and I’m like, ‘Are you really not gonna stop? Are you really going that fast?’ There are also the kids at the preschool who cross the street, which is probably more important than college kids,” said Sarah Pierluissi, CGS ’18.

Deputy Chief Pare says that, “The parents [who drop their kids off at the day care by the BUPD station] have not raised any issues or concerns.”

This might be due to the time that the parents drop or pick up their kids, or the fact that there are small kids makes the drivers more observant and careful, whereas college kids should know better than to walk across a crosswalk when there’s any car in sight.

While Deputy Chief Pare hasn’t himself “witnessed any close pedestrian encounters on that street” and doesn’t “see vehicles speeding in this area,” it very frequently happens. Drivers tend to behave when there is actual policemen around rather than just empty squad cars.

One question you might ask is if there are any speed limit signs on Harry Agganis Way to actually tell the drivers what the safe speed is to drive on this road, and the answer to that is that there is.

“There are actually signs right behind StuVi II. They are posted well below the 25 mph limit,” said Pare. While these are helpful to pedestrians for cars coming from behind StuVi2, even though some of these cars disregard it anyway or don’t see it to begin with, it doesn’t help us from those coming from the other direction.

A possible solution to this problem would be more speed limit signs, or at least a speed limit sign on the road after you turn onto it by Agganis Arena. Another suggestion would be another crosswalk sign on the road that is more where the drivers are looking than the crosswalk signs on the side of the road, or even to paint the brick crosswalk so it’s more noticeable as something other than the road.