Within the past few years, many proposals have been made by different groups in Oxford to increase the safety of walkers and bikers on and off campus. A new proposal from outgoing city council member Grieg Rutherford might have drivers seeing more red: at certain strategic times of the day, such as class changes, all lights at certain intersections would turn red at once to allow more pedestrian traffic.
Rutherford is highly involved in the matter and said it is not the city who brought forth the issue of campus pedestrian safety, but Miami University's parking transportation department. Miami brought the issue to light over a year ago after many students had voiced concerns for their safety when crossing the street between classes. Miami has brought the issue before Oxford's City Council over numerous times over the past year, Rutherford said.
Although Rutherford did not have exact numbers, he has said that multiple students are hit and badly injured each year. Yet, even more students are being hit but not filing a police report simply because they don't have the time, or because the injuries are not severe, according to Rutherford.
A study of traffic patterns run by Rutherford has been in progress for the past year to monitor the number of cars passing through the Oxford campus and throughout northwestern Butler County. As a result of the study, proposals have been made to try to resolve the problem.
The first proposal suggested creating a bypass that would go counterclockwise around the city from U.S. Route 27 to State Route 73. This proposal was turned down for manifold reasons including funding, according to Rutherford.
A second proposal suggested that the city utilize Chestnut and Locust streets for traffic to pass through Oxford without having to pass through campus. However, due to much resistance from the residents of these two streets, the second proposal was also rejected.
Once this was rejected, an alternative plan to change Oxford's traffic light functions was made. This latest proposal, made by Rutherford, suggests that all traffic lights on campus would momentarily turn red, allowing a greater volume of students to cross the streets safely, a method known as "scrambling."
"Scrambling" is a method used by cities with high volumes of both cars and walkers such as London and New York. To allow walkers to cross in large amounts, all lights turn red to ensure safe crossing.
Sophomore Kristin Bell said the situation is not currently that bad, but that drivers do need to be more careful and pedestrians do need to be more vigilant.
"I think that the scrambling technique might work well and benefit pedestrians, but it could hinder students living off-campus because they might not get to class on time," Bell said.
While red lights might also discourage some students from driving to class, this is only a secondary concern for the city, according to Rutherford.
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Discouraging driving stems from a concern not just with safety, but with the environment as well. When students are idling at a very slow pace, they are not only using more gas, but also creating more emissions, according to Rutherford.
Rutherford has suggested many different ideas to solve this problem such as putting in parking meters on Spring, Maple, Oak, Tallawanda and other streets, giving compensation to students who register a bike with the city, and making certain streets one-way.
David Prytherch, a geography professor and Miami's Sustainability Coordinator has also been working with Rutherford and the city council to increase safety procedures.
"I have been involved in an ongoing process to develop a Campus Circulation Master Plan that seeks ways to promote safe, efficient, and sustainable transportation around campus," he said. "This plan was drafted by a design consultant for Miami's Physical Facilities Department. And it does, among other things, explore possible crosswalk and intersection improvements to improve pedestrian safety."
However, Prytherch said there is nothing in this particular plan that would include freezing traffic lights and discouraging students from driving to class.
Rutherford said Miami needs to take the situation very seriously and survey students to see what their needs are, as well as find how safe they truly feel.
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