Amid reports of an impending crackdown on disruptive jaywalking by the St. Paul Police Department, Macalester and the City of St. Paul are in the advanced stages of planning a project aimed at minimizing the nuisance created by the combination of heavy vehicle traffic frequent pedestrian crossings on Grand Avenue.

The crux of Macalester's preliminary proposal is a thin, elevated median that would run that the length of the three mid-block crossings between Snelling Avenue and Macalester Street that are routinely used by students. Due to concern with traffic congestion, vehicles would still have the right-of-way at these crossings. However, the median would be intended to help students cross more easily by providing a safe place to stand during an incremental crossing of Grand.

"Our studies have shown a fairly even distribution of use among the three crossings," Physical Plant Director Mark Dickinson said. "It is in our interest to maintain all three and not try to redirect students."

In addition to the median, the proposal includes several features that would combine to create a very different street-side landscape along Grand between Snelling and Macalester. One is a pull-off area for cars that would edge into the courtyard area between Turck Hall and Kagin Commons, providing a place for vehicles to temporarily stop to load, unload or pick up students. In addition, the proposal includes eight new parallel parking spots on Grand, four on each side of the street, near the intersection of Grand and Macalester.

While pedestrians will still have the right-of-way at that intersection, Macalester has proposed curb extensions at the four corners. These extensions would narrow Grand slightly and enlarge the sidewalks near the intersection, creating better vehicle-pedestrian visibility by moving pedestrians nearer to traffic lanes. Drivers and pedestrianscurrently have difficulty seeing one another at the intersection because parked cars often obscure pedestrians. Finally, the length of the block would be re-landscaped to clearly differentiate it from the rest of Grand, indicating to drivers a discontinuity in the area and hopefully causing them to slow down.

Dickinson emphasizes, however, that as of yet these changes represent a proposal that has not been endorsed by either the City of St. Paul or the District 14 Community Council, with whom meetings are taking place. In the most recent of those meetings with the Department of Public Works' Traffic Engineer, concern was raised over whether the proposal would be ADA compliant. Additionally, there is lingering uncertainty over whether the median would indeed present a safe area for pedestrians.

"We're considering doing a test this spring, using a temporary median before going ahead with the actual project," Dickinson said. "The further you get into these types of projects, there are always more layers to peel back, more issues that you have to deal with."

While Macalester, the City and the District Council hammer out the details, student frustration with the difficulties of crossing Grand—particularly during rush hour times—will necessarily go unabated.

"It is definitely difficult to cross at times," Roland McKay '06 said. "It seems like a liability to both the school and the community."

Further complicating the problem, the St. Paul Police Department recently announced plans to begin systematically enforcing crosswalk regulations throughout the city. While the focus of the crackdown is on drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, the police will also ticket and fine pedestrians who force cars to slow down when crossing streets mid-block. According to Dickinson, Macalester has been in communication with the St. Paul Police Department, emphasizing that a plan for Grand is in the works and requesting them not to focus on fining students.

"It's only going to be exacerbating the problem if the police come out and start ticketing," he said.

Also unhelpful, Dickinson added, are the periodic incidences of students painting makeshift crosswalks along Grand, exemplified by the appearance of fat yellow lines marking the three mid-block crossings a few weeks ago.

"Those lines would be helpful in bringing awareness to the problem if there weren't any," Dickinson said. "But we have heightened awareness of the problem. Everybody who needs to be is at the table trying to work this out."