The Sidewalk and What It Is Used For

If you live on campus or know those who do, maybe you could pass on a message on for me...

USE THE SIDEWALK

I have included a diagram to help this "discussion" (aka I talk, you listen and you change - aren't I going to be a great mother!)



Ok, here we go... when you are heading by second parking lot on the way to the main academic parking lot there is a roadway and a sidewalk. They run parallel to each other. In fact I'm pretty sure that the edge of the roadway and the edge of the sidewalk are less than 8 feet apart. There seems to be some confusion currently about what the roadway is used for and what the sidewalk is used for. Let me clear this up for you: the roadway is for things that have wheels (see, I'm lenient, I could have said things that have an engine, but as a motorist I don't mind sharing with bikes, boards, scoots, unis or whatever) and the sidewalk is for things with feet/legs. So if you are say, just walking with your friends to your favourite class (or anything at all actually) you should be on the sidewalk, you and your 45 friends should NOT, I repeat, NOT be walking on the roadway.

Now friends, I'm going on this tangent and made this happy diagram for a couple reasons: a) your safety and b) my rage/impediment to forward progress. See, when you walk on the road you take up a lane (or two!) on what is only a two-way roadway. And if I'm coming into class in my car and someone is leaving with their car in the opposite direction then I cannot simply swerve around you, I must drive excessively slow whilst I wait for the other car to proceed safely in their lane. This makes me rage. It makes me rage a lot. Because pedestrians and motorists could all be heading in a forward direction at an acceptable speed, together, if THE PEDESTRIANS KEPT TO THE SIDEWALK! I don't care if you don't want to keep on the sidewalk all the way to the side doors. I will work with you if you keep to the sidewalk and then cross to cut through the academic parking lot to get into the school via the doors by the athletic centre. This is because parking lots, unlike roadways are all about the cohabitation of pedestrians and motorists.

So here is the deal - walk on the sidewalk, or maybe, just maybe someday me and my rage filled self with run you and your iPod and your tight pants down. :)

(oh and lest i be judged as some oil guzzling maniac - sciatica permitting, i walk into school when i can, and i use the sidewalk!)