A group of students in Illinois Student Council are advocating for the implementation of hazard signs at the intersection of Green and Third streets, and are seeking input from community members on their experiences there.
The Red Lion and Naya Indian Cuisine border the intersection, making for a location high in foot traffic. Though there is a pedestrian crosswalk, there are currently no stop signs, stop lights or hazard signs at the crossing.
The ISC Community and Governmental Relations Committee created a form last month asking community members to share their experiences with the intersection and opinions on possible solutions.
“As students, we’ve been out there late at night, when there’s not much visible light, and a lot of students are crossing,” said Hussain Razvi, junior in Engineering and student representative for The Grainger College of Engineering. “It’s pretty dangerous … and as people in student governance, when you have a lot of students suffering from this sort of structural thing, that’s something that we could fix.”
The form asks respondents to rate the current conditions of the intersection, detail any personal experiences at the intersection and indicate interest in adding a safety device in the area, among other questions.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Shortly after ISC released the form, a car struck a pedestrian crossing the intersection. The Feb. 20 collision caused law enforcement to temporarily close Green Street to traffic between Second and Fourth streets.
“I think that raised a lot more awareness on campus about the safety of the intersection,” said Naila Syed, senior in LAS and student representative for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “Hopefully, we won’t have to experience anything like that again.”
Syed said the group doesn’t know exactly what kind of signage they hope to implement in the area, but that they are open to community input. Their ideal situation would be installing a traffic control device in which crossers press a button that alerts cars to stop, as exists on Springfield Avenue near Grainger Engineering Library.
“What we’re aiming for is to get at least ‘stop for pedestrians’ there or possibly a stop sign, but that’s all up to the City Council,” Syed said. “So we’re just open to whatever we can do to make sure students can be safe.”
Just a few weeks in, the committee has been surprised by the volume of responses they’ve already received.
“A lot of, not just students, but faculty and people who actually have cars are writing really long, really detailed experiences about the situation,” Razvi said. “I’ve never seen a survey where we’ve had this much people actually writing things in … nearly 90%, if not 95% of people are writing pretty detailed experiences of things that they’ve encountered at this intersection.”
Syed agreed, saying this level of response is unprecedented.
“Honestly, it’s kind of alarming that there isn’t a stop sign there already,” Syed said. “There’s clearly a problem that needs to be addressed, and I am looking forward to collaborating with the City Council.”
Razvi said he plans to conduct more research, including a visit to the intersection at night to collect responses directly from people there. The team estimates they will close the form by the end of March, after which they will send their responses to student liaisons who work with the Champaign City Council.
As implementation would be handled by City Council, Syed said she is not sure how long the process could take, but estimated it could be done in a few months if the Council supports their ideas.
Both Syed and Razvi emphasized that ISC is open to student input on campus and community issues, beyond just the intersection.
“This is a great opportunity to let students know that they can come talk to Student Council if they have some kind of issue, because we have really powerful connections where we can make real change on campus,” Syed said. “Even if it’s not about the intersection, if there’s any other concern that students have, they can come and reach out to us.”
The CGR committee holds meetings that are open to the public Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Illini Union.
