Op-Ed: Student’s demand stricter speed limits

by Brianna Gilman

Edited by Shaughnessy Benoit

Recently the people have been complaining to campus safety about the speed of vehicles on our campus roads. The speed limit on University drive is 30mph. Although some vehicles have been clocked going 40mph. This has caused some unrest among the students. “I’ve almost been hit a few times walking to the Lake” said senior Shaughnessy Benoit. There are two official entrances to campus. One is mountain road and the other is university drive.

Cars traveling at those speeds can cause serious injury to students walking around. There are multiple crosswalks on campus.

The community expressed a concern about drivers in recent weeks. The senior class living at Lakeview announced they wanted the speed limit to be enforced because of the lack of sight when entering University Drive.

“The entrance down there by pearly, you can’t see if people are driving people drive so fast that your better not even exiting that way just go down the dirt road” said Senior Olivia Chiechon.

According to campus safety, in an interview they stated, “cars usually go the speed limit. We’ve talk to a few people, but I wouldn’t say more than 5” said Officer Jason at the front desk. Two cameras have been added to the four corners stop sign. Also, one camera has been added to the cafeteria stop sign on the opposite side of campus.

The Rindge police said there have only been three tickets handed out on the Rindge campus. These tickets were not significant has the drivers were only going 15 over the speed limit.

15mph is a significantly faster speed than the actual speed limit. If the speed limit is 30 than 15 over is 45mph. Going that speed on a road parallel to a lake with no safety bar is very dangerous. When snow is falling the road can be very slick even the safest most aware driver could get hurt on a bad patch of ice.

So, what needs to be done? At any University safety is the main concern. Speed limits should be reduced even more. This would force drivers to at least go the original speed limit. Another thing is to put a blue light outside campus safety. If we put a blue light by the road drivers will assume it’s an officer. This will make them slow down significantly. The last change I would make is for campus safety to enforce the speed limit. We are a small campus with lots of foot activity. If campus safety enforced the speed limit drivers would slow down.