Binghamton University

Personal Safety Advisory Committee

Anthony Preus, Chair
9/24/2009

To: President Lois DeFleur and the Campus Community
Subject: Annual Report of the Personal Safety Advisory Committee 2008/9 [i]

The Report:

The Committee met weekly each semester.

The 2008/9 academic year appears, looking back, to have been placed between bookends. At the beginning of the year the Committee had the opportunity to view an excellent video designed to instruct people in an academic setting how to respond to an active shooter situation. Nearly at the end of the year the tragic scenario unfolded in actuality at the American Civic Association; as we watched the news coverage in horror, we realized how important and relevant that training can be.

Between the bookends were several volumes of ongoing issues:

1. Pedestrian – vehicle encounters
2. Taxis
3. The safety of students at off-campus events and locales mainly populated by students
4. General pedestrian safety on campus
5. Safety alerts: fire alarms, emergency telephones, emergency alerts

1. The issue of pedestrian – vehicle encounters has become for many people in the university community the number one safety concern. [iii] And it is easy to see why – nearly all of the parking lots and residence halls, and several of the bus stops, are “outside the brain,” and nearly all the academic buildings are “inside the brain,” so nearly everyone connected with the university crosses a fairly busy street at least twice a day, in some cases much more often than twice a day. And some of the busiest pedestrian walkways are immediately next to a busy street, with no buffer. Consequently everyone who regularly drives on campus drives in constant fear of hitting a pedestrian, and that fear increases dramatically as night falls, as the pedestrians in question are dressed in dark clothing, and perhaps talking on a cell phone or listening to an Ipod.

            Actual encounters between vehicles and pedestrians are, fortunately, rather rare given the high number of possible moments for them to occur. During the 2008/9 academic year the most serious encounter actually occurred just off campus, near the Bunn Hill entrance to campus; some comments on that location are included in the Spring “Campus-by-Night” report. Another serious incident occurred in the Traffic Circle, due to seriously nonchalant crossing behavior. We certainly want to reduce this danger as much as possible everywhere on campus that we can. Some possible solutions are structural – more vividly defined crossing locations, perhaps increased lighting at some of them, perhaps physically discouraging crossing at inappropriate locations. We have had some suggestions of ways to improve the crossing behavior of pedestrians – those deserve further study and hopefully some can be implemented.

            In some cases pedestrian – vehicle encounters can be caused by vehicles using pedestrian walkways. In some cases the University has responded by installing physical barriers to vehicle access, for example in Hinman College. We applaud. There are several other places, noted in the Campus-by-Night reports, that could benefit from similar treatment.

2. Taxis. The PSAC has received reports of dangerous situations involving taxis to and from campus. Taxis are often seriously over-occupied, and some taxi drivers seem more interested in maximizing the number of fares they collect than in getting their passengers to their destinations in a timely manner. We have received at least one report of a driver treating passengers abusively, or encouraging some passengers to be abusive to others. Part of the problem seems to be that New York State Law makes explicit exceptions for taxis and other public transportation, exempting them from safety requirements obligatory for other drivers. Perhaps a bigger part of the problem is that in the local area only the City of Binghamton licenses taxis, so only the Binghamton Police can enforce violation of taxi license provisions. Committee discussion, including consultation with Dave Husch, Director of Off Campus College, led to the conclusion that it would make a lot of sense for taxis to be licensed by Broome County rather than the City of Binghamton, and would make enforcement somewhat more effective.

            We note that a Motor Carrier Investigator with the NYS DOT comes to campus about once a semester and rides with an officer on the evening shift. This person is citing administrative sections dealing with taxis, their safety equipment and passenger limitations. That’s to the good, but doubtless not enough!

3. The safety of students at off-campus events and locales mainly populated by students is another matter discussed at length with Dave Husch. We are especially concerned about:

1. Illness caused by excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages. In brief, we think that it would help somewhat if there were more effective enforcement of the laws concerning serving alcohol to already-inebriated individuals.
2. Violent behavior where alcohol is involved. We are all aware of a tragic example at the Rathskeller. Rapid alerting of the police would help.
3. Sexual assault where alcohol is involved. We have learned from experience that punishing perpetrators is complicated by the reluctance of many victims to testify. Prevention is better if we can do it. OCC is working at identifying particularly dangerous locations.
4. DWI. Existing enforcement seems appropriately focused.

4. General pedestrian safety on campus. In our campus-by-night tours both Fall and Spring the Committee found the campus to be generally well-lighted; exceptions are noted in those reports. We have had very few complaints about inadequate exterior blue light phones – it’s not quite true that you can see one from every external location on campus, but once one has gotten into a bit of a routine, one knows where they all are on one’s normal paths.

We do have a few places where students insist on walking where there is no official path – the most often noted is the path from the Appalachian Dining Hall to the paid parking lot, the most direct path from breakfast to lecture for the Mountainview students. We occasionally come across a location where a handrail is needed for icy times of the year – these locations tend to be addressed pretty quickly by physical facilities, once they are pointed out.

5. Safety alerts. This is a somewhat catchall category.

a) Fire alarms. This is an issue primarily for the residence halls. We had some discussion about a report that policy about fire alarms had changed, that Vestal FD would roll immediately a fire alarms was pulled; this seemed somewhat problematic given the large number of false alarms. We believe the issue to have been resolved.

(VP Note: The situation has not changed, but campus is working with the Fire Department to manage as well as possible and still meet fire code requirements.)

b) Emergency telephones. Although we have Blue Light Phones everywhere on campus outside buildings, emergency phone access is rarer inside buildings. Sometimes people say that the ubiquity of cell phones makes them unnecessary, but that is not entirely clear given the fact that in some interior places cell phone service is absent or spotty. Doubtless this is an issue that the 2009/10 committee should revisit.

c) Emergency notification. This brings us back to the circumstances surrounding the ACA tragedy. Following the Virginia Tech shooting Binghamton University took the excellent step of instituting an emergency notification system that would call people’s cell phones with emergency updates. We note that at this point only about 3000 people have signed up to get the emergency notification, out of probably 15,000 plus cell phones that COULD receive the emergency notification. Encouraging entering students to sign up would certainly increase those numbers.

We note that it is possible for people to get a New York alert for Broome County; doubtless even fewer people on campus subscribe to that! For people at the UDC it might make particularly good sense to sign up for that.

PSAC Campus-by-Night

October 23, 2008

Participants: Rob Bellon, Don Brister, Dan Chambers, Tracey Debnar, Colleen Hailey, Tony Preus, Beth Riley, Erica Romera, Wayne Schneider, Scott Schuhert

Specific recommendations are highlighted in bold.

We met at the Administration Building at 7; first we looked at the north side of the building, where construction work resulted in a steeper grade between the building and the parking garage than had previously existed. We agreed that a railing should be installed in anticipation of icy conditions in this shaded area.

Proceeding to the Traffic Circle, we had the opportunity to admire the new water softening addition to the pumping facility. Going on to the crossing north of the circle, we considered the dangers of crossing elsewhere than the official zebra crossings, especially cutting across to the circle center itself. Educational intervention seems appropriate, but in addition, we might eventually consider a physical barrier steering people to the correct crossing location.

Comment on “educational intervention”:  There has been some effort to encourage pedestrians to cross at zebra crossings, rather than at other locations. This needs to be an ongoing effort. We recognize that improper crossing at the traffic circle can be especially tempting, and especially dangerous.

We took a look at the pathway through the woods to the Bearcat Sports Complex, opining that eventually lighting would need to be installed there, though perhaps not yet. We continued on to look at a possible relocation of at least one or two of the bus stops currently outside the “brain” to a spot inside the brain, specifically near Science III and/or IV. Ultimately it would probably be best to have all busses proceed around the brain in a clockwise direction, avoiding busses meeting on a narrow street, and allowing commuter students to get on and off the bus from the side of the street where they would normally have most of their business.

Proceeding to Lot M, we observed an active “otter slide” near the Susquehanna Bus Stop. We also checked out stairways that were reported in bad repair, but they seemed all right.

We had heard rather strong pleas for improved crossing of Lot M by Hillside and Susquehanna residents, and we looked at that situation. A UPD member of the committee argued strongly against putting zebra stripes through the parking lot; this seems to be a matter needing further discussion. It might be worthwhile comparing the treatment of the parking lot south of the Event Center, where definite pedestrian routes have been established through the parking area. If the pathway coming down from Hillside and Susquehanna were redirected slightly to the south when it meets Lot M it would point more directly across to a pathway down from Lot M. We recognize that establishing a true (raised) pathway across Lot M at this point would involve the loss of probably four parking spaces, but there is some sentiment on the Committee that the clear improvement in safety would be worth the trade-off. We note that the top of the pathway down from Lot M is sometimes blocked by a parked vehicle; at the very least, that might be discouraged by more paint indicating that it is a non-parking location. We also note that the bottom of this path does not now lead to a zebra crossing, and at the other side of the road there is a short space that does not have a walkway. We recall that we have (several times) recommended a walkway along the east (at this point) side of the road all the way from Lot L to Mountainview. Since we are talking about the major pedestrian route of Hillside students to central campus, this needs serious attention.

We discussed a proposal for relocating the Susquehanna bus stop; we did not perceive a strong argument for doing that, although it remains an open question.

Going on to Mountainview, we observed the handiwork of those who feel that the Appalachian Trail should not be closed. We discussed a possible way of making it traversable as an inclined plane, rather than stairs; doubtless that is the preferred solution. It will be difficult to prevent students from using some version of this route from the Mountainview Dining Hall to the Lecture Hall etc.

Proceeding to the Lecture Hall, we observed the darkness on the south side of the building, and noting the large number of people who walk in this area in the evening hours, we recommended walkway lighting.

PSAC Campus-by-Night

March 26, 2009

Attendees: Tony Preus, Dan Chambers, Tracey Debnar, Ronnie Goldberg, Colleen Hailey, Lisa Havtur, Beth Riley, Erica Romero, Wayne Schneider.

The PSAC met at 7 in the Administration Building. It was raining a little, not enough to slow us down. We took the van to East Campus Housing, glancing at the building in progress; Wayne told us about his having persuaded the project managers to put a door on the parking lot side of the building, something that the architects had originally neglected to include. We are reminded again that vigilance in looking at plans pays off in the long run.

We continued on foot to the Newman House bridge, admiring the troll’s magnificent new digs; we had received notice that there was a problem about the lighting. Wayne let us know that it had been a problem with a severed electrical line, since repaired. But we did notice that the steep hill on the west side of the bridge calls out for a hand rail! We recommend that one be installed!

Driving past Chabad and Newman House, we noticed (again) the lack of a sidewalk between the Newman House bridge and Chabad. This is of course the responsibility of the Town of Vestal, but we do want to express our dissatisfaction with this clearly dangerous state of affairs.

Continuing to the ITC, we took a look (without getting out of the van) at the current construction project there. This was an occasion for a brief discussion of DOT’s plans for a walking/bicycle trail connecting the existing Otsiningo Trail in Binghamton to the Rail-to-Trail in Vestal. Part of that connection is included in the plans surrounding the replacement of the NY 201 bridges over Old Vestal Road and the Vestal Parkway, but it is expected to include a pathway along the north side of campus including the ITC continuing, at this time, at least as far as University Plaza – an excellent project for the safety of students living in that area who might want to commute to campus by bicycle or even walking.

We continued, by van, to the Bunn Hill entrance to campus and the location of a serious vehicle-student encounter earlier this semester. The committee looked with dismay at the complexities of the intersection, particularly the fact that a walkway terminates at Bunn Hill Road without a designated crossing – the very location of the accident in question. The Chair actually walked across Bunn Hill at that point, and when a car approached from the south there was some speculation as to whether he would be the next casualty. This is a very tricky crossing-place: for persons crossing from the Plaza (BG Pizza) side toward campus, you cannot see cars approaching from the south until they are very nearly upon you, especially since they may be exceeding the 30 MPH speed limit at that point. Crossing from the Campus side, cars exiting from Campus are behind you and thus not visible, and for the driver, pedestrians are, until you are out of the entrance, somewhat to the side of the vehicle, and might be obscured by the corner window post of your vehicle.

We should add that for vehicles turning left onto campus from Bunn Hill Road there is somewhat of the same problem as for pedestrians crossing from the plaza toward campus – vehicles approaching from the south are not visible until almost upon you. We recommend that we ask DOT to study this intersection with a view toward recommending to the Town of Vestal, in cooperation with the University, ways to improve its safety, both for pedestrians crossing Bunn Hill, and for vehicles entering and exiting campus.

            Returning to Campus, we noted the progress made on improving lighting around the Brain, and discussed the extension of similar progress to the lighting along the road to Mountainview. We stopped briefly at Hinman and noted, without getting out of the van, the P-stops that had been installed and dislodged with Hinmanite muscle-power. Obviously a bit more concrete in the ground is called for! But we definitely approve of the goal of preventing large vehicles from circulating within Hinman!

            In that vein, we proceeded to Mountainview, where we looked at the path between Oneida and Marcy, where P-stops also need to be installed, since vehicles sometimes proceed through this area, leaving little or no room for pedestrians. We then went along to take a look, from the top, at the Appalachian Trail, which was, as usual, sustaining heavy traffic, even though obviously pretty slippery from the ongoing rain. This area is apparently under study from a Mountainview committee, and has had some attention from Vice President Rose as well. Wayne has his recommendations too. We hope that a satisfactory solution can be developed, since the present arrangement poses a danger of falling on the path itself, and takes people who survive the path into the paid parking lot, where some of them choose to walk out under the moving toll barrier, risking a significant bump on the head.

            Finally, we note that many people who drive on campus repeatedly affirm that pedestrians on campus often ignore the presence of vehicles in their environment, even while wearing dark clothing on a dark and rainy night, and while talking on a cell phone or otherwise distracted by portable electronic equipment. There is some sentiment on the committee that students should be returned for a refresher course to elementary school, where they were taught to look both ways, twice, before crossing the street.

            Or, more practically, the committee has discussed a campaign for reminding students to cross safely. We remain open to suggestions for effective ways of carrying on such a campaign.

Committee Members: