Walking is a great feeling. In an economy that is recessing, and gas prices soaring pass $3.00 a gallon, living close to campus makes it convenient (and cheap) to walk to school.

I arrived here from Kansas where it took me 15 minutes to drive to school everyday, so it’s nice to be able to walk again. But that walk sometimes becomes hazardous because there is no sidewalk pass Martha Layne Collins Boulevard on Johns Hill Road. You are either forced to walk on the side of the road or in the grass. It’s a lose-lose situation if you look at it. If you choose to walk on the grass, sometimes the grass is so saturated with water that the walkway becomes muddy or that it is all icy and people slip and fall. The other alternative is to walk on the sides of the streets. That is not good either because there are cars and buses coming back and forth on that roadway.

How many time have I walked to (or back from) class and people driving would not slow down, and would drive right up next to you? I even had a TANK bus do that to me. It’s not fun and it pretty scares to see a big bus just inches from you going about 35 m.p.h. pass you. It feels like you’re being pushed aside by the wind whenever that happens. I have a friend who walks home from Northern Kentucky University at night that carries an umbrella with him. Every time a person drives by, he would stick that umbrella out a little so that incoming vehicle would move over and give him room. He shouldn’t be required to do that every time he walks home at night.

With the new dorm at Lakeside that is getting ready to open, it would make sense for NKU (or Highland Heights), to build a sidewalk on Johns Hill Road pass Martha Layne Collins Boulevard. That part of the road is dangerous, and it’s only a matter of time before some drunk driver hits someone.

So, need another example? What about the Skyline bar that sits next to NKU? People get drunk and sometimes might not make the best choice. Having somebody walk home from NKU is dangerous because of that possibility.

Solution: Build a sidewalk before someone dies and NKU gets sued.

David Ta Graduate Student Masters in communcation