The beginning of Ohio University's Fall Semester has led to an increase in people "bolting across" Court Street, Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said.
The topic came during this year's annual forum between city officials and OU's Community Ambassadors, who help students engage with the rest of the city and county. Patterson, Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle, Athens Fire Chief Rob Rymer, Deputy Service-Safety Director Ron Lucas and other Athens officials attended the meeting.
According to the Athens City code, failing to follow the directions of traffic signs or signals is a misdemeanor offense. Patterson said Pyle agreed that jaywalking was a concern, and that Athens officers in the uptown areas will be “actively citing” or warning citizens who jaywalk there.
"For me it was to caution individuals not to play Frogger across Court Street, and to use the controlled crosswalks instead of just ambling across Court Street in uncontrolled areas — and mentioning to them that, by the way, it’s against the law to jaywalk in the city of Athens," Patterson said.
The city sees increases in jaywalking at the beginning of every year, Patterson said, and he especially notices jaywalking on Court Street in the early evening hours.
Patterson said he’s strictly concerned for the safety of residents.
“It’s not, ‘Hey, let’s just make revenue by citing individuals.’ It’s a safety issue. … The last thing I want is for someone to be seriously injured or killed," he said.
Ohio University Police Department Lt. Tim Ryan said, as far as he knows, his department will not change anything about the way it enforces jaywalking on campus.
Some students agreed that jaywalking was a problem in Athens.
“I just came from the bookstore and a couple people literally almost got run over,” Emily Campbell, a sophomore studying communication, said, adding that she doesn't jaywalk often. “They were talking on the phone. They were not fazed.”
She said she was in favor of police citing people for jaywalking. However, she thought it might be hard for police to actually cite people because there are often large groups jaywalking at once.
“There’s seriously so many of them,” she said. “People don’t care, and it’s rude.”
Tommy Septer, a senior studying audio engineering, said he jaywalks sometimes but looks for oncoming traffic first.
“If I actually do get one (citation), it’s probably because I deserve it,” he said.
