PROBLEMS
A section of 21st Avenue between Owen and the fast food strip (Subway, Starbucks, and Panera) is a small two-way road where are busy from morning to night. So, crossing 21st Ave. is very dangerous, as cars tend to speed and there is a blind curve. However, many Owen students like to jaywalk between Owen and the other side of the street. This is not a safe habit. In fact, a fellow Owen student was hit by a car and there were many near-misses. Thus, we would like to prevent any further incidents caused by jaywalking.
SOLUTIONS
To prevent any further incidents, we are proposing three innovative ideas:
1. Sign on wall and other places between Owen and 21st Ave. We plan to create fliers with a warning for students not to jaywalk. We will post these fliers on the wall, electric pole, and Owen doors. We also will distribute these fliers to Owen students.
2. ODN Announcement to exercise caution. We plan to create awareness through ODN announcement that will show this caution daily for one week.
3. Start a rumor that police are going to give out tickets for jaywalking. We plan to create a rumor that jaywalking will be ticketed by the Police. We will spread it by using word-of-mouth by constantly talking about it to different students.
For #1 : I like the idea, perhaps if you could have somebody outside yelling at people that are jaywalking. That way those people would get immediate feedback (it's similar to a flier). or a loud speaker shouting out warnings.
ReplyDeleteFor #3: I'm concerned that lying is not a good way to help change habits in the long run. In the short run you may accomplish your goals, but people adapt and may learn to ignore future warns as a result of a rumor campaign. It is also unethical.
I think you could get a little more creative with the ODN announcements to make them more effective. For instance, you could publish a story about the student who got hit (Student X) or the near misses, perhaps with quotes of now-reformed non-J walkers. You could also provide facts from some simple tests: you could time how long the light really is (or take a sample and provide an average time) to show that people do not save as much time as they think.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of fear, but fear usually works in the short term only. Once students see that these "rumors" are truly rumors, they will return to their dangerous jay-walking ways. So #3 might be good in the short term, but long term it would not address the problem.
ReplyDelete#2, the ODN announcement, may suffer the same fate. After a couple weeks, it will get old and students will no longer pay attention to it. It will loose effectiveness quickly.
#3 is the strongest idea in my opinion. It places a note of caution at the site of the potential danger...and remind people who are "in the moment" of breaking the rules. This reminder will be relatively more effective in deterring the bad behavior. Obtaining permission to post on the light poles may be tough
#1 and #2 are similar, I would just question which would be more effective at warning students. What do students pay more attention to? In the ODN, they may skip over the announcement if they see it every week. Fliers are a tangible reminder but they can be thrown away quickly.
ReplyDelete#3 is a strong idea, but who, or what, keeps the rumor going next year and the years after? I think you want a solution that is easily transferable from year to year so as to make sure the solution endures.
Regarding 1- I do not think that it is a problem of lack of awareness of the issue. People jaywalk to save time running from cars to class so I'm not sure putting up a sign would make a large difference. #2 has the simliar problem- they can be easily ignored.
ReplyDeleteI like #3 but instead of a rumor maybe the campus police should be out there for a day or two- for awhile last year they were at the corner regularly. Then word could be passed that they are also ticketing jaywalkers.
#3 doesn’t strike me as innovation. This sounds more like creating a rumor than actually improving a process or product. Also, this idea will not last long into the future and might create controversy. In regards to idea #1, I think there could be some kind of awareness factor that would be useful. Perhaps adding stickers to the poles outside of Mellow Mushroom or creating a petition to send to Vanderbilt University staff would be more effective. I do feel that your group did find a problem that needs to be solved or corrected.
ReplyDeleteI think number 3 would really be the only one that would work. No one cares about signs, and if you put it in the ODN it will be drowned out by someone's missing jacket or an upcoming party that Yuri is throwing.
ReplyDeleteWhat about an announcement in ODN from the Vandy Police Department?
None would work for some of us. Guys, I was stopped by two female officers once in Seattle for jaywalking (they do actually give tickets for it there). They told me how dare I? I said "Everyone jaywalks in NY, Moscow, and DC, and no one dies." One of them said "I would start by saying you're sorry!" I said "But I'm not!" and walked away as they were in shock. The moral of the story: NY, DC, and Moscow will always jaywalk no matter what you do. I would concentrate on slowing down the cars (writing to the city to put in speed bumps and 20 mph speed zone).
ReplyDeleteEasy there Leslyn! Great to see you're concerned about us, but Owen students have enough stress without worrying about the man hounding us for crossing the street. I'm voting for #2 because it seems the least intrusive into our lives. If you put announcements at the top of ODN every day for a week, people will notice. We're still going to cross in the middle of the street, but we'll realize to do so with extra caution. #1 and #3 are too high profile - they'll only attract the wrong attention. Don't take away our quick caffeine fix!
ReplyDeleteI think this is going to be a hard change to enforce because the perceived risk of getting hit by a car is low and the wait-time for the light to change is long. However, I think that the number of jaywalkers might be decreased if they believe that there is a chance they can get a ticket. I think starting a rumor might work, especially if it is made to look like someone is outraged because of how much the ticket was for ($100 or something). My doubts about the other ideas are that they won’t be effective because it’s not a problem of lack of info, people just don’t care.
ReplyDeleteI think solutions 1 and 2 are mostly going to fall on deaf ears, as students who are doing the jaywalking are familiar with the dangers of crossing a street. (since most are adult Graduate students)
ReplyDeleteSolution 3 would be the most effective, especially considering that there is more police presence on 21st street than in the entire city of Oakland. As far as solution 3 being a rumor, so long as you make it believable it will be relatively effective in solving your described problem.
As one of the students who has on occasion been known to jaywalk, I don't think either #1 or #2 would deter me from that behavior. I like the concept of solution #3 – I wonder if you could work with university police to make the “rumor” more credible. That, or turn it into a spoof where current students give out “fake tickets” to jay-walkers or give out rewards (e.g., free coffee) to people who cross the street at the designated areas.
ReplyDeleteI am a frequent jaywalker and I do not think that any of the proposed solution would keep me from jaywalking. I like to think the odds that I would be stopped by the vanderbilt police and ticketed in the 3 seconds it takes me to cross 21st are very slim. I would probably have to see someone being ticketed right in front of me to be discouraged from crossing. I think a better solution to keeping students safe is a bridge or tunnel, effective but will probably take more than the rest of the mod to implement.
ReplyDeleteI definitely see this as a big problem as I actually witnessed the student get hit by the car. I think that solutions 1 and 2 will be mostly ignored by the student population. I remember receiving an email not too long ago addressing this issue - I read it, but did not really think much of it. As for solution 3, I think this one has the best chance of working. However, I think the threat/rumor has to come directly from the VU police, otherwise students would probably just continue to jaywalk.
ReplyDeleteYour main challenge with implementing these ideas is that students like efficiency. Thus I think innovation #3 - not just rumor but actually implementing increased tickets for jaywalking - threatens student health by means of their wallet. Public Service Announcements will not have a significant effect on the student body.
ReplyDeleteI like idea #1 the best, as it will place the caution in front of people at the right time. An ODN announcement could fade into background noise, and may not stick with people as they are close to crossing the street. Idea #3 would be effective only if people truly believed it was happening. I think this would be difficult to sustain.
ReplyDeleteI like the problem idea that your team is attempting to solve. Among the three solutions, I see a both idea#1 and #2 working together to effectively curtail the negative jaywalking we see everyday on 21st. Because students read the ODN everyday, a regular announcement will remind both students who do and do not cross 21st to not jaywalk. Moreover, this will reinforce the idea #2.
ReplyDeleteThis problem is definitely a concern, but it may be difficult to make a large difference.
ReplyDeletePutting signs around Owen and on the electric pole may get some people's attention, but there are others that you're never going to reach (and those may be the ones that jaywalk most often). You may need to check with our facilities people before you put up signs on our doors and walls - I hear they tear down anything posted. A sign on the electric pole will probably only be seen by those waiting for the crosswalk.
The problem with the previous option and for an ODN option are that they are too easy to ignore. Also, I believe that there have been emails/ODN postings in the past addressing this very problem. It seems they didn't have much of an effect or this wouldn't still be a problem.
I think the rumor is a fun idea. You may want to get Vandy patrol buy in to help strengthen the rumor. Handing out "warnings" randomly once a week, or giving your team members fake tickets are interesting ideas. It may not have holding power, but it's something.
I feel like I'm being too negative in some of this feedback... it's not my intention, I just want to give you some things to think about. I hope you can come up with a solution! I trust us to look before we cross, but I don't trust drivers flying around that turn.
People will probably ignore signs and postings, they are mostly aware of the dangers.
ReplyDeleteI really like the third idea, using people's paranoia works wonders, similar to having plainclothes cops or secret shoppers.
Did you consider a zipline from the top of the building down to the starbucks parking lot? That would be safer AND fun!
I think the only way to stop jaywalking is to incentivize drivers on 21st to hit students that they see jaywalking...then pedestrians, maybe even myself included, will start using the crosswalks.
ReplyDelete