Some things change, but not Bigelow

It’s roughly quarter till nine in the morning. Pajama-clad and lucky to be out of bed at all,… It’s roughly quarter till nine in the morning. Pajama-clad and lucky to be out of bed at all, you find yourself barely able to fight that hardly-awake-yet, groggy feeling, let alone stumble to class without bumping into unsuspecting passers-by. Be afraid, however – your toughest obstacle is still ahead. In order to make it to class in the Cathedral of Learning, you’re going to first have to play a little game of what the experts like to call “Bigelow Boulevard Frogger.”

Unless you’re an engineer who practically lives at Benedum, you probably use the crosswalk between the William Pitt Union and the Cathedral on Bigelow Boulevard at least a few times each day. You know as well as I do that trying to dash across traffic between disgruntled drivers is not a task for the wary.

Though it seems like a topic on which all argument has been exhausted long ago, the fact of the matter is that nothing is different. Extra precautions were put in place more than a year ago, but it’s still just a set of lines on the road, a couple of neon yellow signs and a slew of drivers who don’t really care.

They’re in the position of power – when it’s a human versus a vehicle, who do you think wins? When students are forced to try their luck against a driver who may or may not stop, accidents are bound to happen. A lack of accidents recently only signifies luck, not appropriate methods for avoiding them.

Students are at a high risk. There are times of the day when yield signs are not present – late at night and on the weekends, when pedestrian traffic is considerably lower. But when a sign sits between lanes on the crosswalk, it doesn’t stop drivers from proceeding anyway, ignoring pedestrians waiting to cross.

Bigelow Boulevard doesn’t only present a threat to pedestrians. The effect of hundreds of students crossing – at its worst on the hour when classes are changing – is vehicular traffic that remains at a standstill for 15 or 20 minutes. The occasional gutsy Jeff Gordon wannabe may try to nose through the pack, only furthering the war between feet and wheels.

Driving down or even near Bigelow Boulevard during the day is pretty much the worst driving mistake you can make. Not only is Bigelow Boulevard itself reduced to a gridlock of angry drivers whose only retribution is a long honk of the car horn or a string of obscenities, but any attempt at driving in the left-most lane of Forbes or Fifth avenues is a bad move because of the difficulty of making a turn onto Bigelow Boulevard.

Basically, Bigelow Boulevard is a walking and driving nightmare. Most people can avoid it and should, but don’t.

Whether it is a rumor or fact that Pitt attempted to buy the property and restrict traffic, I think it was a good idea. Except for emergency vehicles zooming between hospitals, in which the quickest route is necessary and it may just be Bigelow, all other vehicular traffic should be restricted. It isn’t too far out of the way to use Bellefield Avenue or South Bouquet Street instead, and the extra few blocks is an even trade for avoiding the mess. Not only would it unclog traffic flow around the Cathedral, but it would also promote the safety of students just trying to make it to class unharmed.

Jen Giarrusso likes e-mails so much more than feedback on message boards. She can be reached at jgiarrusso@pittnews.com.