By Jocelyn Hudnell
University of Maryland students shared on-campus driving and road safety concerns as the Department of Transportation Services celebrated Safety Month in October.
DOTS hosted numerous events and activities that promoted safe driving and safe road navigation this month. Students were encouraged to attend giveaways for gear such as helmets, water bottles and tire patch kits. They were also encouraged to sign a safety pledge to operate their vehicles responsibly on campus.
UMD is home to a shuttle system with 19 routes. But maintaining road safety on campus involves more than the month’s events.
Kandace Barrigher, a part-time transit operations supervisor of Shuttle-UM, discussed the process for recruiting shuttle drivers in order to keep roads safe.
“Training regimens is very robust, it’s actually more robust than what the state requires for operating a CDL vehicle,” she said.
Barrigher added Shuttle-UM has many student drivers and full-time drivers, all of whom receive extensive training in CDL vehicle operations. Drivers must also follow strict protocols regarding what size vehicles they are qualified to operate.
“Usually when there’s some major update as far as campus, especially when it comes to construction or anything, there’s tons of signage,” Barrigher said.
She added there is bright signage and campaigns in multiple languages to tell people to stay away from certain areas to prevent collisions between vehicles.
Despite DOTS’ efforts, student drivers continue to be worried about driving and road safety on campus.
Garrett Haas, a junior accounting major and driver on campus, expressed his concern about pedestrian awareness. He said he is mainly concerned about pedestrians who do not look where they are going.
“I think some people just blindly cross instead of having any wherewithal with what’s going on around them,” Haas said.
Tony Sanders, a senior journalism major and regular commuter from Gaithersburg, Maryland, said construction is a main concern. When he comes across construction sites, he tries to find new routes in order to navigate around them. He uses Google Maps and also listens to the radio for traffic updates.
He recalled an experience last semester when he drove near the construction site for the Purple Line around Knight Hall. After driving near the site, a nail got stuck in his tire. While driving on the highway, his tire “blew out,” he said.
Sanders said he took a close exit and could make a stop at a gas station, but he had to call his family for help.
“I don’t even bother going near areas where there’s construction,” he said. “If I see it, I just go, ‘Okay, let me plan a different route,’ and I’ll just start taking that from now on.”
Sanders mentioned an issue of cars speeding on Adelphi Rd. as another one of his concerns.
“It can be 8 in the morning, I see people that are speed demons,” he said.
Sanders said he wishes there were more police on campus to monitor speeding habits.
“I just want to get from A to B safely, and I always try to tell people like, ‘remember you’re not just driving for yourself, you’re driving for other people too,’” he said. “You trying to get where you need to go. I’m trying to get where I need to go.”
“It’s got to be a team effort,” Sanders said.
Featured Image: A bus and car driving on Regents Dr. on the University of Maryland campus. Photo by Jocelyn Hudnell.