Houstonian: Students voice concerns over crosswalk

From the Houstonian:

Looking both ways just isn't cutting it anymore, at least not for the 800-plus students who cross Sam Houston Avenue.

According to Student Government Association Senator Jason Plotkin, he has been receiving a large amount of complaints from students living in Sam Houston Village and Jackson-Shaver Hall who must cross over Sam Houston Avenue from 18th and 17th streets that feel the intersection is unsafe due to the brevity of the crossing lights.

"The problem is you have to cross the street twice just to get to Sam Houston Village," [Freshman Tiffany Hodges] said. "There's no button [for the crossing signal], you just have to wait until the light changes. They should fix the light to allow more people to cross so that people aren't running across."

Plotkin hopes through cooperation with City Councilman Mack Woodward and City Manager Kevin Evans that both short and long-term solutions will be found to this growing concern.

"Obviously [the number of students crossing that intersection] is a lot more than [we are] used to having at the intersection," said Woodward. "We're working to find some long term and short term solutions to this problem, but obviously you can't changes overnight." Woodward explained that one of the problems in dealing with a situation like this is in routing responsibility as Sam Houston Avenue is also Highway 75, thus putting it under the jurisdiction of not only the city but the state as well.