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I have always been very vocal about urbanism. My dream is for every city to ban or severely limit car infrastructure in favor of walkable and bikeable streets along with a healthy mix of public transportation like buses, trams and trains. While I don’t expect the City of Appleton to entertain this idea, as beneficial as pedestrianizing has proven to be, at least the section of College Avenue between South Drew Street to the West and North Lawe Street to the east should be fully pedestrianized. This section of College Avenue divides the Conservatory buildings and Plantz Hall from the rest of campus and is also known as that annoying section of road where you always hear, “yellow lights are flashing.” There are so many reasons why the road deserves to be reclaimed by pedestrians, and I think every second that this road continues to be driven upon, it is actively harming the community and the students on this campus.
This strip of road is highly trafficked by both pedestrians and cars all day and night. This means that people are risking their safety every time they cross that road. It isn’t unheard of for drivers to disregard the fact that they must yield to pedestrians in this zone. At least one student is involved in a crash with a car every year, and in 2017 a student was hospitalized after being struck by a drunk driver while crossing the street in this area. With the way some cars act in this zone, I’m surprised there aren’t more incidents like this. There have been times I have been crossing this street thinking that all the cars are stopped only for one car to disregard the flashing lights and zoom past. There are also cars that speed up as soon as the lights flash on to try to avoid stopping. This is dangerous for obvious reasons, and it’s worse at night, especially on weekends. While it is important for pedestrians to be aware of cars, it should be on the drivers to make sure pedestrians are safe. We have the right of way; they do not.
There is also the general disturbance that the cars cause. It is an all-too-common story to hear of people shouting out slurs or sexually harassing students while driving past. This can be unavoidable for students who live or study near this part of College Avenue. Another issue is the noise from this area. I would never choose to live in Plantz Hall simply because I don’t want to deal with the noise from this section of the street. Again, these problems become severely worse at night and on the weekends. Just recently, I was called slurs by a caravan of drivers in obnoxiously loud F-150’s. It didn’t bother me too much — the slurs didn’t apply to me — but I know other people deal with this too, and can imagine how much more unsafe I would feel if they were words I had more history with.
Pedestrianizing this strip of road is only the start. It is not so large that it would see some of the benefits seen from other pedestrianized road projects such as increased foot traffic for retail — which has been proven to be more economically beneficial than added parking — increased accessibility for emergency vehicles, increased rates of community engagement with local projects such as community gardens that could be put in, and more. That would only happen if the entirety of of Downtown Appleton was turned into something akin to a Dutch “autoluw” road, or even State Street in Madison. However, strictly in reference to this section of the road, there would be more leisure space for the students and the public. It would also look significantly prettier. The chapel would really shine as a sort of landmark as opposed to the sort of roadside attraction that most drivers don’t bother looking at while going about their day. This, on top of the added safety and comfort that this decision would bring about is more than enough to convince me.
We need to reclaim this section of road and make it only accessible to pedestrians. Replace the part of the streets that cars used to occupy with green space for expedient crossing as well as leisure. Expand walkways onto what used to be the cross walks as a proper path from the north side to the south side of campus. Alternatively, make it something like Boldt Way, which has limited access for cars and is mostly traversed on foot. There are a multitude of ways to transform that dangerous dividing line into an unimpeded continuum contributing to a more safe and beautiful campus for everyone.