IT SOUNDS like a set-up in a bad horror movie. On a dark, rainy night, the heroine makes her way from the library back to her apartment. Clutching her books to her chest, she weighs her options: there's the dim construction site, the shadowy bridge underpass, the deserted colonnade. Each holds the looming specter of danger; it's anyone's guess which path will bring her to safety and which will put her in harm's way.
Seems like a pretty pathetic plot device, but it's an even worse reality. For a Lambeth student boarding a bus home for the evening, those are the options. The University Hall stop drops students off in the middle of a construction site; the footbridge that was supposed to provide a well-lit walkway but, apparently due to either budget or resource constraints, provides a half-completed home to safety hazards and a cover for unfamiliar individuals instead. Another stop at the field next to the Drama building and Sigma Nu deposits students near the gas station a few blocks down Emmet; unfortunately, that trek means the scenic view of a motel parking lot and the unlit underpass of the bridge over Emmet. Finally, there's a stop at Beta Bridge, which means a trek through the old colonnade flanked by two sets of stairs surrounded by dense trees and shrubs.
Choose your own adventure.
From the very beginning of a student's time at this University, it is made very clear that their safety is of the highest import. The Safety and Security Talks presented to each dorm of first years underscores over and over again the importance of being conscious of one's surroundings, of avoiding poorly lit areas and unfamiliar terrain. Quite a shock, then, when those first years move into Lambeth Field the following year only to find that they have no other options than these safety-compromising situations. U.Va. has a responsibility to the students who live in the Lambeth apartments to provide safe transportation.
These 804 residents are effectively stranded each evening that they spend on Central Grounds participating in classes or extracurriculars, and the limited parking situation all over Grounds means that even students that have cars can rarely rely on that mode of transportation to guarantee them a secure ride home. According to UTS, the Blue Route no longer passes Lambeth on Emmet Street, northbound, and therefore, there is no longer a Lambeth stop. But any changes in the route schedule need to take into account major university housing complexes.
The failure to do so is particularly egregious in light of the fact that the UTS routes provide nearly door-to-door service to many of the private apartment complexes located off Grounds. An upperclassman who decides to live on Grounds -- and who pays $3,200 to U.Va. for the privilege -- deserves a safe way to get home, even if that does mean a slightly more inconvenient bus schedule. A single assault on a Lambeth resident would be far too great a price to pay for the "convenience" of a route 5 or 10 minutes shorter. Furthermore, a renewed search for the serial rapist following his most recent attack has the entire Charlottesville community on edge, and has students being told regularly how important it is that they make personal safety their primary priority; it seems absurd that meanwhile, expediency, not safety, is the primary priority of the University's transportation system.
The director of Parking and Transportation was not available for comment, however its plausible that the route was changed in anticipation of a well-lit footbridge extending from the University Hall bus stop to Lambeth Field. Unfortunetly, Lambeth students were not informed of the reasons behind the new route and no explanation is known. But a lack of resources to complete the project in time for the school year means not only no bridge, but also an open construction site. Students respect the fact that budget cuts have hit every area and no more begrudge U.Va. the uncompleted bridge than last year's hiring freeze; the University is not to blame for the situation. But the situation is what the situation is, and until construction is completed, Parking and Transportation must assure the safety of its students rather than ignoring the problem.
This is not an issue of lazy Lambeth students in search of a quicker route to Central Grounds. If it would be simpler for UTS to run a Lambeth stop only after dark instead of all day, that would be more than sufficient. What is not sufficient, however, is to force Lambeth residents to play guessing games with their personal safety.
Katie Cristol's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at kcristol@cavalierdaily.com.
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