Drivers and students dodge one another in Oakland streets

It’s another Tuesday, just before 2:15 p.m. A pack of Pitt students leave the Cathedral, their… It’s another Tuesday, just before 2:15 p.m. A pack of Pitt students leave the Cathedral, their destination unknown. One thing is for sure: they’re all going in the same direction.

Traffic on Bigelow Boulevard comes to a standstill as droves of students, just liberated from class, traipse across the boulevard, ignoring the lines of cars parked from the crosswalk down to Forbes Avenue.

A black, four-door sedan pauses as a young woman darts in front of it, leading another wave of invaders across the road toward the William Pitt Union. Despite another group hot on their heels, the driver of the sedan peels out of its makeshift parking space, almost hitting a young man, who quickly steps back from the road.

He shakes his head, turns, and walks down Bigelow Boulevard, seemingly discouraged from walking across the busy road.

Five minutes later, traffic is still at a standstill, with only a few brave drivers daring to continue on their path. One vehicle sits there, allowing every pedestrian to cross. A cacophony of screeching horns blares from behind the vehicle, the drivers’ frustration taking audible form.

This is another typical afternoon on Pitt’s campus, when students play chicken with motorists each time they venture from the Cathedral to the Union.

That intersection is one of many throughout campus where similar scenarios occur each day. Late last week, these traffic problems resulted in two accidents injuring Pitt students Jamie Bennett and Amanda Patterson.

However, this is not the first time a Pitt student has been injured after being struck by a motor vehicle. Earlier this semester, a car on Fifth Avenue by Tennyson Avenue hit a young woman, but no serious injuries were reported. In November 2003, two Pitt students were struck while crossing Bigelow Boulevard going from the Cathedral to the Union. Neither was critically injured.

Such was not the case for Bennett. She was admitted to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital after she was struck while crossing Forbes Avenue the evening of Nov. 11. She will be hospitalized indefinitely while recovering from a broken neck, two broken legs and various head injuries..

Patterson was struck from behind on the afternoon of Nov. 12, while walking down Fifth Avenue on her way back to Towers.

“A bus was coming toward me, so I stepped to the side,” she said. “A man in a black pick-up truck drove around the back of the bus and hit me from behind.”

Pitt police escorted Patterson to UPMC Presbyterian. She said she was scared while going through the ordeal.

“All I wanted was my roommate,” she said.

She had left her cell phone in her room, since she was only going to the Cathedral to pick up a paper, she added. Having been in an accident before, she knew what to expect, but never realized how frightening it would be to go through it alone.

She added that she is now more leery about crossing streets on campus.

“I was completely surprised,” she said. “Drivers should be aware of what’s going on.”

Brandi Snyder, Lindsey Heffernan and Megan Klamerus agree with Patterson. The group of biology majors was crossing the street in one of the packs of students Tuesday afternoon. They all agreed that the campus could benefit from some supervision at those dangerous intersections.

“We need a crossing guard,” Heffernan joked, while her friends nodded in agreement.

“People jump out [along Bigelow Boulevard],” she said.

“Especially down by Forbes [Avenue],” Klamerus added. “[The crosswalk] is longer down there and you can’t get across in time.”

Snyder said the recent accidents are going to make her more cautious around campus.

“I’m probably going to watch more carefully now,” she said.

Sophomore Leighann Calamera doesn’t fault the drivers that get frustrated with students along the stretch of Bigelow Boulevard.

“There’s more of a problem with the pedestrians than the drivers,” she said. “People cross when and where they feel like it.”

She agreed with Heffernan and her friends on the idea of a crossing guard.

“I know it sounds absurd, but unless the pedestrians learn not to cross, it might be necessary.”

Patterson realizes that there will always be a conflict between the two groups, and she doubts much will change.

“In the grand scheme of drivers and walkers, we have a disadvantage as walkers because drivers have so much more powers than us,” she said.

Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney said that safety at the crosswalks remains the responsibility of pedestrians and drivers.

“I don’t know why students feel so safe that they think they can run across the street without looking left and right,” he said.