Campus Police increase focus on traffic safety and enforcement
Amanda Smith | Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/11/09 Section: News
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Two recently awarded state grants totaling $26,824, allocated through funds from the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, will allow the UNCW Police Department to step up safety efforts and introduce new initiatives. The funding will primarily go toward safety education and the purchasing of speed monitoring and checkpoint operational support equipment.
"The ultimate goal of these efforts is to increase the safety of everyone moving about the campus, because we recognize the campus is becoming much more congested in terms of bicycles, skateboards, vehicles and pedestrians," said UNCW Police Lt. Osey Sanders said.
The safety initiative program will be a three-phase effort, beginning with educating students about the laws surrounding the use of bicycles and skateboards as a mode of transportation on campus.
"A much more intensive effort will go into safety education, using our PAC'N (Police and Community Network) program as a platform to educate students specifically in terms of bicycle regulatory and state laws, such as those that require bicycles to be ridden like a vehicle on the roadway and not on sidewalks," Lt. Sanders said.
Additionally, according to Lt. Sanders, pedestrian crosswalks are intended for pedestrians only. So, when a bicyclist or skateboarder rides through a pedestrian crosswalk, it is as if they are riding a vehicle through a pedestrian area. UNCW Police plan to increase officer presence at pedestrian crosswalks and intersections during peak traffic times to educate students of these regulations and ensure they are being recognized.
"Officers will be making sure students are aware of these laws as they approach the intersections and encourage them to dismount from their bicycles and skateboards, and cross the pedestrian crosswalk in accordance to the law," Lt. Sanders said.
Additional phases of the initiative will have the UNCW Police Department conducting vehicle checkpoints on campus, as well as on roads leading into campus.
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