Foot traffic around campus can be just as exasperating as vehicle traffic. Some students who walk to class have the misfortune of using the only sidewalk on SW 30th St. This is the street that runs east to west along campus and connects University Drive to College Avenue. This is also the street with a sidewalk on one side of the road, which forces students to cross in the middle of speeding traffic due to there being one crosswalk. The single crosswalk is located at the intersection of SW 30th St. and SW 76th Ave. near NSU’s College of Dental Medicine building. However, some students must walk a little farther, risking life and limb to cross in areas such as SW 75th Ave., Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd. and Shepard Broad Way, where there are no crosswalks or traffic lights. So what is being done to fix the foot traffic problem on campus?
To find that answer, I reached out to Randall Seneff, who serves as the executive director of design and construction for NSU. Seneff has been working at the facilities management center for nine years and informed me of upcoming design and construction changes around campus that would alleviate foot traffic and vehicle traffic. He spoke of plans for an HPD dental drop-off relocation to clear car and shuttle traffic around the dental medicine building. Also, a university school car lane will be added to help ease traffic for parents dropping off and picking up their children in the morning and afternoon. Lastly, a sidewalk will be constructed around the Miami Dolphins training facility. The sidewalk will allow students traveling on SW 30th St. in the direction of College Avenue to avoid the risk of crossing areas without traffic lights and crosswalks. This additional sidewalk will also be a convenient foot path for students parking in the HPD parking garage. As of now, there are no set dates for these planned projects, and the sidewalk will not be built until after the Dolphins have moved to their new training facility. Students can expect to see improvements in the next couple of years.
Change doesn’t happen overnight. There are other areas on campus, not mentioned in this article, that could be improved to help foot and vehicle traffic. If so, NSU’s Facilities Management office encourages students to voice their concerns. A QR code has been provided in this article for that purpose. For more information, visit www.nova.edu/facilities/index.html.
If you are one of those students who utilizes SW 30th St., and you want to cross in those areas of SW 75th Ave., Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd. or Shepard Broad Way, then my suggestion to you is do not cross.
Photo: T. Nix
