The Pedestrian Safety Task Force recently released its com­pre­hen­sive report as a part of the University’s mas­ter plan to improve pedes­trian safety.

The Pedestrian Safety Task Force was appointed by President Eisler in November 2009 to review cur­rent con­di­tions regard­ing pedes­trian safety on cam­pus and iden­ti­fy­ing ways to improve safety.Jerry Scoby, vice pres­i­dent of admin­is­tra­tion and finance and chair of the task force, said, “it was a great task force to work with.”

Scoby said Student Government mem­bers Claire Gould and Morgan Toms put a lot of effort into the task force. Toms cre­ated a 26-page report of assess­ments of the cross­walks around campus.

The task force is work­ing with the City of Big Rapids and the Michigan Department of Transportation in regards to imple­ment­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions sug­gested to the task force.

Suggestions include adding cross­walks and stop signs, improv­ing cross­walks and elim­i­nat­ing crosswalks.

Locations in the report include cam­pus Power Plant cross­ing from South Warren Avenue to the Wesley House, where a cross­walk is needed, accord­ing to the report. Another sug­ges­tion includes con­vert­ing Stadium Drive’s inter­sec­tion into a four-way stop.

The report states the task force approaches pedes­trian safety mat­ters through the three “Es”, which refer to engi­neer­ing, edu­ca­tion and enforce­ment. The task force adopted this gen­eral out­line to help orga­nize the approach on each topic.

Also, the report states the group served as a “com­mit­tee of the whole” in the area of engi­neer­ing, and that is where the group spent 90 per­cent of the time.

“The task­force came up with some very help­ful sug­ges­tions,” said Scoby. He said they are prac­ti­cal, inex­pen­sive and will improve the cam­pus and community.

This sum­mer, Scoby said the task force would begin imple­ment­ing a num­ber of the sug­ges­tions, includ­ing Wesley House/campus Power Plant on South Street, elim­i­nat­ing the side­walk and cross­walk on South Street by Top Taggart field and South Street cross­ing to Pickell Hall and Knollview Drive.

Additional projects will take place in Summer 2011, as some of the tim­ing is not clear yet, said Scoby. The uni­ver­sity is also col­lab­o­rat­ing with M-DOT, which will affect tim­ing as well.