Students are all too familiar with the sound of screeching tires. The Northern Iowan Student Government has been looking into whether or not the Hudson Road crosswalk (from the Towers to student parking near the Dome) is safe for students and faculty members to use. This discussion has been prevalent with the members of the Employee Safety and Employee Health and Well-Being Committee for a number of years as well.

Therese Callaghan, chairwoman of the Health and Safety committee, expressed her concerns about the dangers of this crosswalk.

“The Health and Safety Committee want to address university safety concerns that come up,” Callaghan said. “And this was [a concern], especially because there are a number of staff members that work in the WRC or work outside of campus that have seen what they call ‘near misses.’”

‘Near misses’ can be described as those students or faculty members that come close to being hit by cars while crossing the intersection, but are not actually injured.

“[Faculty members] happen to see them, particularly in the morning hours, with 8 a.m. classes and traffic, including university traffic, as well as other city traffic as people try to get to work on time,” Callaghan said.

Callaghan went on to say that, although the speed limit in that area is 35 mph, many drivers tend to go 45 mph. A number of students agree that this crosswalk is dangerous.

“I’ve heard people have been almost hit before,” said junior communication disorder major Haley Main. “Personally, cars normally stop for me, but after doing that, they caused cars behind them to slam on their breaks. It’s honestly very frustrating when cars stop and wait, because they can definitely cause an accident. And as a student running across, it’s also very scary and unsafe.”

Freshman elementary education major, Ali Parenza, shared similar concerns about the crosswalk.

“You really just don’t know if the cars will stop for you or not,” Parenza said. “I think it’s very dangerous for both students and cars. Most just don’t know what to do because there isn’t a sign or anything.”

“When cars turn to come out of the C lot they normally don’t turn their blinkers on and pedestrians aren’t prepared when cars turn right [onto Hudson] and come their way,” said sophomore Ashley Finnegan.

According to Callaghan, the committee has been discussing this issue for a number of years, but the awareness has heightened within the past couple of years. During this time, they have thought of a proposal to help this issue.

“The committee has discussed one option would be putting up a fence along the side of where the crosswalk is and having it go all the way to the end of the tunnel,” Callaghan said. “So it would eliminate the crosswalk altogether by putting up a fence to keep people from crossing there.”

This concept was installed near the Quads. Instead of a separate crosswalk, students now have only one option, and it’s to cross the street using the stoplight. This was put in place about a decade ago because students and faculty were faced with the same problem as the Hudson Road crosswalk.

Callaghan also addressed an urban legend that has circulated around campus for many years.

“We’ve heard rumors from students that they believe that if they get hit, they get free tuition. That is not true. That is a rumor,” Callaghan said. “We don’t want our students feeling like it’s okay to be unsafe because you would get free tuition, because certainly it is a myth.”

Overall, the committee wants to bring more awareness to safety issues when using a crosswalk, whether the crosswalk on Hudson Road is eliminated or not.

“We want students to be safe when crossing and look both ways, to not just step out in front of traffic,” Callaghan said. “And not just students, obviously, faculty and staff and community members, too.”