OUR VIEW: Simple guidelines for mobility on campus

With the arrival of the largest freshman class in the history of USU, along with the continually growing movements to reduce pollution created by automobiles, it seems that alternative forms of transportation have increased just as much as the number of people on Utah State’s campus.

    Along with that increase comes new challenges in managing how people get around, both on foot or by whatever other preferred form of transportation students may use.

    While the school itself has a few policies regarding certain forms of transportation, the capabilities of enforcing those policies are obviously limited, meaning that the policies are closer to the line of courteous guidelines, rather than set-in-stone rules. The responsibility of looking out for yourself and your fellow students falls on the shoulders of only us, as students.

    With that said, there are a few courtesies that shouldn’t be too hard to understand the logic behind, and definitely should not be much of an inconvenience to anybody.

    For example, if it is the time of day between classes when the walkways on campus are flooded with students going to and from their next classes, weaving through the masses on a razor scooter or longboard is probably not the best of ideas. It’s a potential hazard to both the riders and fellow pedestrians.

    The worst-case scenario when adhering to this rule of conduct is having to walk and mingle with the people next to you while carrying your scooter or longboard, rather than just flying past them without saying a word.

    Another issue of controlling the flow of traffic on campus are the doors that go from The Hub to the TSC patio. It has been somewhat of an unwritten rule that people exiting the TSC use the set of doors to the west, and people entering the TSC use the doors to the east. More simply put, just stick to the doors to your right regardless of if you’re entering or exiting, and there will be no more people getting jammed up, in and around that doorway.

    Lastly, there’s the Aggie Shuttle. There will be times when riders will need to cram into the back of the bus to load everybody. Don’t be too shy to brush shoulders with other riders for the sake of assuring nobody gets left behind.

    It’s all relatively simple to keep the flow of traffic moving, if not just common courtesy to everybody else. Don’t try to speed through masses of people, don’t block doorways to keep people from going through and don’t be afraid to get friendly for the sake of everyone getting a bus ride.