One of the most obvious changes to campus during the winter break was the demolition of the bridge across Wisconsin Avenue. The Marquette Tribune in its first two issues since the start of the semester devoted large parts of the paper to this topic.

However, there is one topic that the students and campus authorities seem to have missed, and it is important to the safety of the students, and hence, I bring it up. As a result of the bridge demolition, all traffic has moved from Wisconsin Avenue to Wells Street. While this is not unexpected, during rush hour (in the morning especially) this makes crossing Wells Street between 16th and 12th streets very dangerous for students.

To compare, Wisconsin Avenue has traffic lights at both 15th and 13th streets, while Wells does not have any. I fear that as students hurry across Wells Street to get to their 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. classes — I am one of these students — the additional number of cars is an accident waiting to happen. A very significant portion of the student body lives north of Wells Street between 12th and 16th streets, and the demolition of the Wisconsin Avenue bridge has increased the chances of one of them getting injured in a car accident.

I sincerely hope that this does not happen, but I would really like to see the campus authorities try to manage traffic at least during the morning rush hour so that any regrettable incident does not occur. I understand that traffic lights cannot be put up at Wells Street, at least, on a short notice. However, perhaps we can have four-way stop signs at the Wells Street and the 14th or 15th Street intersection so traffic slows down for students. Anything that will increase student safety is greatly appreciated by the community.