How to follow Utah State’s unspoken pedestrian traffic laws
The Utah State University campus is filled with thousands of students and each one has an important place to be at any given time. How do they get there? Their feet guide them along man-made walking highways called sidewalks.
Some would say it’s an art that thousands of young adults manage to conduct themselves in such an orderly fashion.
Others would say it is simply a learned behavior that is engrained into the brains of all people from the time they were small and just learning to walk.
But the question remains: How do students know the rules of the sidewalk?
“When we were small in school, we were taught to walk certain ways in elementary school,” said Terri Wesemann, a junior in American Studies. “There are just rules that you learn and carry with you.”
Wesemann thinks rules, even those unspoken, help establish order; but create problems when misunderstood. While they certainly can, most students understand the laws of the road and feel like walking on campus is no different.
“Generally, we should walk like we drive,” said Russ Jones, a junior in mechanical engineering. “We should stay on certain sides of the sidewalks and go certain speeds. A lot of times people will complain because people in front of them aren’t walking fast enough. I feel like if people are in a big hurry a lot of times they’ll break those unsaid laws.”
The goal is usually the same for all students: get to the desired destination in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of disturbance. There are, however, mixed thoughts and feelings about the best ways to do that.
Jones said there is a strategy to passing other students on the sidewalks.
“To try and pass them, you have to get in the other lane and speed up,” Jones said. “You just pick up your pace, start walking fast and elbow everybody as you’re going by you know. Some people will slow down or you can just speed up and try and shoot the gap.”
Students often run into heavy traffic at the intersections around campus. The busiest ones seem to be right around the library or the sidewalks that run alongside the quad.
The heavy traffic doesn’t seem to bother Sage Jolley, a freshman from Melba, Idaho. Jolley didn’t grow up using sidewalks in her small town, but she quickly adapted to campus life and has developed her own strategy for maneuvering through the intersections.
“I just time myself. I think, ‘Do I need to walk faster to make it in front if this person, or do I need to slow down?’ If you make eye contact…it’s kind of telepathic, like, ‘Are you going to go or are you not?’ Then it just kind of happens,” Jolley said.
“Who has the right-of-way?” is a common pedestrian question, but no one quite knows the answer.
“I would say the right-of-way goes to whoever is in the biggest hurry,” Wesemann said. “If someone is in a hurry and they don’t seem to be slowing down for you, you need to slow down to let them go by first.”
Most students consider themselves courteous walkers, but there are times they have the urge to break the rules.
“I have an urge to run sometimes when I am late to class. You don’t see many people running, but when you’re late to class and you have a professor like LaPlante, then you know you are going to be in trouble,” Wesemann said.
Jones considers himself an excellent walker, but admits he has a pet peeve.
“It does bug me when they are talking to friends and you have to get by them and they’re blocking the whole sidewalk,” Jones said. “That is the worst. I am just like: ‘Alright, I am going to walk through your conversation.'”