Surrounding Campus Secured

By Angeles Oviedo

This quarter the Associated Student Government continues efforts that began last fall to improve pedestrian safety in areas surrounding campus, seeking student feedback for proposed changes to traffic signals at intersections.

Last quarter, members of ASG formed the Off-Campus Traffic Safety TaskForce, a group which has worked with Santa Clara and the City of Santa Clara to make plans to improve poorly-marked intersections around campus for the safety of the student body and members of the surrounding community. 

"We all, in this community, are almost like a family," said Josh Ronen, an ASG member spearheading the OCTS initiative. "You don't want to see your friend or best friends get hurt or even hear about someone you don't know get hurt, so we said something needs to be done about this." 

He explained that what prompted ASG members to take action were major injuries that student pedestrians had sustained in the past few years in dangerous intersections around campus.

According to Ronen, the TaskForce began their efforts by recruiting support from members of the university, including Joe Sugg, assistant vice president of University Operations, and Philip Beltran, director of Campus Safety Services, alongside several other university officials, all of whom were eager to support the TaskForce's initiative. The team also received support from the Santa Clara police chief who lauded their efforts.

In November, with the help of Sugg and Beltran, the OCTS TaskForce identified major crosswalks around campus, the current traffic indicators in those areas, and how those intersections could be improved. Heavily-used crosswalks, such as those on Market Street, were marked as top priority. 

According to Sugg, Santa Clara City Traffic Engineer Dennis Ng was receptive of the proposed changes during a meeting that was held in early December. In additionthe university recruited a traffic consultant to survey the areas to understand just what the pedestrian and vehicle traffic is like in the marked areas.

"It's a very structured process because, not only is pedestrian safety an issue, but flow of traffic is an issue for the city," said Sugg. "All of these things need to be designed so that they work for everyone."

As plans to design traffic changes move forward, Ronen encourages students to contact OCTS to report past or present incidents on or off campus on student incident reports.

"This is the time, now that the university has turned the ignition and is going full-force with Action taken with Santa Clara authorities to improve pedestrian safety 

Angeles Oviedo

The Santa Clara

This quarter the Associated Student Government continues efforts that began last fall to improve pedestrian safety in areas surrounding campus, seeking student feedback for proposed changes to traffic signals at intersections.

Last quarter, members of ASG formed the Off-Campus Traffic Safety TaskForce, a group which has worked with Santa Clara and the City of Santa Clara to make plans to improve poorly-marked intersections around campus for the safety of the student body and members of the surrounding community. 

"We all, in this community, are almost like a family," said Josh Ronen, an ASG member spearheading the OCTS initiative. "You don't want to see your friend or best friends get hurt or even hear about someone you don't know get hurt, so we said something needs to be done about this." 

He explained that what prompted ASG members to take action were major injuries that student pedestrians had sustained in the past few years in dangerous intersections around campus.

According to Ronen, the TaskForce began their efforts by recruiting support from members of the university, including Joe Sugg, assistant vice president of University Operations, and Philip Beltran, director of Campus Safety Services, alongside several other university officials, all of whom were eager to support the TaskForce's initiative. The team also received support from the Santa Clara police chief who lauded their efforts.

In November, with the help of Sugg and Beltran, the OCTS TaskForce identified major crosswalks around campus, the current traffic indicators in those areas, and how those intersections could be improved. Heavily-used crosswalks, such as those on Market Street, were marked as top priority. 

According to Sugg, Santa Clara City Traffic Engineer Dennis Ng was receptive of the proposed changes during a meeting that was held in early December. In additionthe university recruited a traffic consultant to survey the areas to understand just what the pedestrian and vehicle traffic is like in the marked areas.

"It's a very structured process because, not only is pedestrian safety an issue, but flow of traffic is an issue for the city," said Sugg. "All of these things need to be designed so that they work for everyone."

As plans to design traffic changes move forward, Ronen encourages students to contact OCTS to report past or present incidents on or off campus on student incident reports.

"This is the time, now that the university has turned the ignition and is going full-force with us, that we want to be able to communicate what students' concerns are," said Ronen. "We hope that moving forward, especially with this project, that students become more involved."

Contact Angeles Oviedo at aoviedo@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.