A Conundrum on This Particular Campus

There's a crosswalk here on campus that makes the drivers in the area look really dumb. The crosswalk is across a simple-two-lane road through a high-traffic area in the university. You'd think the drivers are smart enough to know that universities have a lot of pedestrians and that they should just go slowly while driving through campus in general.

This particular crosswalk not only has painted lines to signify it is a crosswalk, but somewhere along the timeline up to now a stoplight has been installed at the crosswalk. Drivers are not smart enough to stop when someone crosses the street at their own crosswalk; they have to have a red light.

This makes some pedestrians look ridiculous too. When we push the button to signal the stoplight, the light automatically turns red, allowing the pedestrians clear right-of-way. In low-traffic times when there isn't a constant stream of cars, it is possible to just cross because there are no cars directly in a collision path. Some pedestrians are simply in the habit of pushing the button and don't have enough sense or attention to simply walk; after all, there are lines and it is a crosswalk.

In concept, this traffic light is a wonderful mediator between pedestrians and drivers. I often feel embarrassed about many people I encounter at this spot.