VCU steps up enforcement as pedestrian crashes rise
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VCU police "refereeing" student traffic last week. Image: Courtesy of VCU Police
VCU is going all-in on pedestrian safety education and traffic enforcement in response to the spate of pedestrian deaths in Richmond.
Why it matters: Despite traffic calming and infrastructure improvements made by school made in 2023, drivers are still hitting dozens of pedestrians around campus each school year.
State of play: There have been 38 collisions involving cars and pedestrians, cyclists or scooters within VCU Police's jurisdiction so far this academic year, spokesperson Jake Burns tells Axios.
- That's up from the 37 recorded last school year and 35 in 2023-2024, per the Times-Dispatch.
- VCUPD's footprint is vast, running basically through most of the Fan and into Shockoe Bottom, so the man who was killed by the driver of a dump truck in Carver and the death of Bill Martin, who was struck and killed walking near VCU Health, are both included in the school's numbers.
- In response, VCU is once again deploying its Operation Safer Streets enforcement drive, posting pedestrian "referees" at key intersections and using data to make more infrastructure improvements.
Zoom in: Through Operation Safer Streets, which focuses on intensified traffic enforcement, VCU Police have made more than 1,200 traffic stops since January, including over 500 for speeding and more than 150 for red light running.
- Its pedestrian referees were out last week calling "fouls" on students stepping into the street before the light changed, or students crossing the street wearing headphones or looking at their phones.
- And VCU studied class schedules and student habits to identity four key intersections where student traffic backed up. It worked with the city to retime the pedestrian signals there to allow students more time to cross.
The intrigue: At Main and Linden, one of the critical intersections, students had just 25 seconds to cross while cars were given 55 seconds to move through.
- The intersection was especially problematic on Tuesdays and Thursdays around 11am, when more than 5,000 students are moving through campus, the busiest slot of the week.
- Now, through the retiming, the lights are flipped between 10:45 and 11am and the throng of students attempting to cross the street get 55 seconds and the cars get 25.
What's next: Operation Safer Streets runs through the first week of April and those referees will be at the medical campus this week.