The Rocket

Issue date: 9/7/07 Section: Opinion

When I am driving home from a long day of classes, the last thing I want to do is pretend that I live in Tel Aviv.

But unfortunately, as a commuter on Slippery Rock's Kiester Road, that is a daily reality.

In general, every student with a car knows that Slippery Rock is under some form of construction or another at any given time. I'm starting to believe that we need to change the town's cutesy tagline of "The Town Known Round the World" to "The Town of Endless Orange Barrels." It's irritating, it's aggravating, and it doesn't seem to get better as the years go by.

I just happen to live near a road that was so recently graced with the Colonial-style monstrosity that is "The Ivy."

When I heard they were building a whole new set of apartment-style dorms on the road, I knew it would be nothing but trouble.

To start with, the construction completely destroyed the road. There are huge dips on the sides where the asphalt is caving in, and driving has become a game of chicken with other drivers.

Admittedly, the road's been fixed in certain spots, so there isn't a huge crevice in the middle of the road where they laid the pipes, and the intersection with Harmony Road is nice and paved (and lined, to boot).

However, what they seem to have neglected to create was a sidewalk from the Ivy to the university. The Ivy's management worked for months and months to build the dorms - and somehow, a sidewalk for the safety of the Ivy's residents slipped their minds.

A bunch of students live there, within walking distance of the university. Naturally, they feel compelled to avoid the chaos that is SRU parking (who can blame them?) and opt to walk down the shoulder of the narrow Kiester Road.

Now, I'm not one for pedestrian target practice, but it's honestly hard to avoid people walking down a road that is hardly wide enough for two cars. Slippery Rock Borough has apparently overlooked the necessity of a pedestrian walkway. The Ivy's Web site even touts a "10 to 15 minute walk" to the library. A walk down the side of a busy two-lane road, they forgot to add.

Not to mention that I've even seen people walking down the road at night - wearing dark clothes, so in reality, I didn't see them until I was right next to them, while a car passed me on the other side of the road. I have a hard enough time trying not to hit that other car. I don't need to be avoiding people walking back from Ginger Hill at midnight.

As far as I can tell, Kiester Road is a disaster waiting to happen. It's only a matter of time before someone gets hit, what with cross-country runners, bicyclists and pedestrians. The road is hardly car-friendly, much less walker-friendly.

Something needs to be done to improve the road conditions leading into town. If the government and the managers of the Ivy care so little about the student population, then students need to find an alternative to walking down the road. It's a danger to both themselves as well as drivers on the road.

The last thing I need to deal with is a student-sized dent in the door of my Honda.

Lisbeth Wells-Pratt is a freshman creative writing major and a regular contributor to The Rocket.

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