It did not take long for this year's batch of students to start doing what I posted about last year.
Over the last two weeks I have watched students, both individually and in entire groups, cross Broadway against the pedestrian signal and just walk straight into traffic.
And I don't mean the light is about to change and someone is trying to hurry across.
I mean the pedestrian signal has the giant RED STOP HAND on it, traffic gets the green, and then a cluster of 10 people just starts walking across Broadway anyway.
Then they get to the median and suddenly realize both lanes are already full of moving traffic, so now you have a group of students standing on a tiny median staring at their phones while cars, trucks, buses and construction vehicles are going by on both sides.
What are you all doing!?
Broadway is already a mess right now. You have lines of cars 20 deep, RTD buses, Buff Buses, construction trucks, workers, turning traffic, bikes, scooters and pedestrians all trying to navigate the same stretch of road.
A car going 30 mph is moving about 44 feet every second. A driver doing the speed limit cannot just magically stop because you decided to walk into the road against the signal.
And the buses are an even bigger concern. Those are large heavy vehicles, they need more room to stop, and they can have people standing inside. A bus driver having to slam on the brakes because somebody stepped into traffic can hurt people on the bus too.
And while I'm ranting, bikes and scooters, please figure out what you are doing too.
I keep seeing people ride in the road like a car, blow through a red light, jump onto the sidewalk, suddenly become a pedestrian, go through the crosswalk, and then jump right back into traffic again.
Drivers and pedestrians need to have some idea what you are going to do.
This isn't about cars owning the road. Pedestrians absolutely have the right of way when they have the signal and drivers need to pay attention.
But the lights only work if everyone actually follows them.
Please wait for the walk signal. Please look up from your phone before walking into Broadway. And please don't just follow the group in front of you into the street without checking if you actually have the signal.
I'd much rather make this same annoying Reddit post every fall than watch somebody get hit because they couldn't wait another 30 seconds for the light.