“Walk signal to cross 24^th Street is now on. Walk signal to cross 24^th Street is now on…”

We all hear the robotic monotone voice at the intersection in the center of campus at least once a day. Most of us, however, don’t wait on the voice to cross. We dart through traffic due to our impatience, myself included.

Over the weekend, two pedestrian and vehicle accidents occurred just a few blocks from campus on South 24^th Street. One man was hit around 10 p.m. Friday evening at 24^th and J Street, then later died of his injuries shortly after arriving at the hospital. The car that struck him fled the scene.

The other accident happened an hour earlier at the intersection of 24^th and Jones Street, where there is no crosswalk for pedestrians at all. This served as a wake up call for me concerning the true dangers there are as a pedestrian and behind the wheel.

From the pedestrian point of view, we seem to think we’re all invincible. We think, “Oh, they have to stop because it’s the law that pedestrians have the right of way.” But it doesn’t always work out that the driver sees you or expects to see a person in the street at all if the light is green.

Most of us crossing the intersection are students on the way to our classes and running on a tight schedule. We think that waiting a few extra minutes for the light to change will cause us to be late, to miss out on something. What we don’t realize, however, is that by running into traffic for the sake of a few minutes isn’t a fair trade for being hit by a moving vehicle.

Now from the driver’s point of view, personally, I avoid driving down 24^th Street if I can. I’m petrified that someone will run out in front of my car, because I know I’ve done that very thing to someone else. The difference between a student being behind the wheel and someone who’s unaffiliated with campus is that they don’t know that students won’t wait for the signal.

I’ve put some thought into how the city and the university could improve that disconnect. Leading up to the intersection, the warning signs are minimal. Technically, the crossing is a school zone, so why is it lacking the flashing lights and warning signs that accompany nearly every school crossing in Omaha?

Even more of a problem intersection than ours is the total lack of a crosswalk at 24^th and Jones at all. I can’t help but wonder if the city had installed a proper crossing for pedestrians, would the accident last weekend have occurred at all?

No one can make that call either way, but the issue still stands. According to a study from the U.S National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a pedestrian is struck and killed on public roadways every two hours in the United States. To begin cutting this statistic down, Omaha needs to look into properly marking any and all intersections used for pedestrian crossing.