Do You Feel
Safe and Comfortable
on Campus?
By Choi Hye-seon, Tribune Reporter
Do you know the Road Traffic Act does not apply to roads on campus? If Chonnam National University (CNU) students have an accident on the roads of campus, they cannot be protected by this law. In this circumstance, if traffic facilities are well-arranged, CNU can guarantee CNUians’ safety and convenience, and people who visit CNU also can feel comfortable and get a good impression on the attention to safety at CNU.
The Administration of CNU has made long-term plans to create an eco-friendly and green campus and started to promote the “Echo-Campus” project beginning last year. After this, CNUians have become more interested in CNU’s transportation facilities than before. Chonnam Tribune shall examine CNU’s transportation facilities focusing on traffic signs, roads and sidewalks on campus.
Transportation Facilities Are Being Improved
Many CNUians have expressed discontent with traffic facilities on campus and The CNU Weekly pointed out their problems early this semester. As a consequence, CNU Administration started to show much more interest in transportation facilities and has currently tried to improve some of them by changing yellow lines into white lines on the roads to let drivers to park their cars there.
In contrast, CNU changed some white lines to yellow lines to not make roads narrower or make traffic heavier. Several directional signs, road signs like ‘slow’ and reflective mirrors are also newly established. CNU drew road lanes on the rotary near Yong-bong Tower clearly to be well recognized by drivers. Kim Won-joong (Senior, Division of Animal Science) said, “It is better for drivers to drive on CNU’s road since more traffic and directional signs are now established. After the traffic lanes were clearly drawn, I feel safer and it is more convenient to drive on roads near Yong-bong Tower.” 
Some Problems Are Being Detected
Although CNU has completed some work to make transportation facilities better these days, they still have some problems. Firstly, there are still many rough pavements where CNUians walk on campus. They say that sidewalks are ground-level and one of the most frequently used facilities among CNU’s traffic facilities. There are, however, some uncomfortable or dangerous spots like sidewalks in front of Library buildings and around Bong-ji pond. Tree-lined streets toward the front gate are known as uncomfortable pavements. Joo Eun-young (Senior, Department of Sociology) said, “Most sidewalks around Bong-ji pond are especially inconvenient for women. When I walk there wearing high heels, it is very inconvenient to walk because high heels often get stuck in the spaces between the bricks.”
Secondly, some CNUians have complained about parking problems and raised suggestions like increasing the number of parking charges. There is not enough space for parking cars. So, drivers park their cars in some places where parking is not allowed. Yellow lines on the street means that parking is not allowed but drivers park their cars there anyway.
There are, for example, many cars parked everyday in the yellow-lined places in front of the Business Administration building. There is a construction site nearby and illegally parked cars make the pathway too narrow for the construction vehicles. In that situation, CNUians who walk through there feel inconvenience and danger.
Thirdly, more reflective mirrors and road signs are needed. Reflective mirrors are especially needed on streets that are divided into several parts so that drivers can confirm cars are coming from other parts and check acute angles. More road signs like ‘Yield’, ‘Stop’ or ‘Slow’ are especially needed on several-parted streets or streets where many cars and walkers pass. For instance, the street between the buildings of Business Administration and Sociology is crowded with cars and people and divided into several parts. There is just one ‘Slow’ sign near here.
If there are more road signs near here, drivers may slow down and check people or cars that are coming from other directions. Parking problems also remain as matters that must be resolved. Some traffic facility problems can be seemingly trivial things but these are related to CNUians’ safety and convenience.
Management Shortage, Worsening the Problems
Administration does not seem to pay attention to traffic facilities and tries hard to find out problems or solve them at ordinary times. CNUians can easily find rough sidewalks, faint traffic lanes or insufficient traffic signs. One instance that has caused many headaches is the new Car-Free Zone in front of the College of Humanities, a zone where cars cannot pass through beginning March 23. There are many CNUians who walk through this area and this zone is very convenient for those walkers. After this zone became effective, however, CNU did not control or manage this zone well.
At first, CNU did not establish signposts that informs or indicates a Car-free Zone to drivers and established the signposts after almost one month passed. There are two guards near the Car-free zone but they do not control the zone well. Motorcycle drivers pass through the zone with high speed even when there are many students on the street. Jang Ji-eun (Junior, Department of English Language and Literature) said, “I sometimes think that the Car-free Zone is useless because motorcycles pass through the zone freely and CNU does not control them.”
CNU sometimes does not indicate construction sites clearly or set accurate information signboards near the construction sites. CNU also does not set enough safety devices and trucks pass by walkers without any safeguards. These show that CNU occasionally does not guarantee CNUians’ safety thoroughly when there is construction happening.
Constant and Careful Management Are Needed
Even though some problems of traffic facilities have been solved, there are still many traffic facilities to be improved. Administration of CNU should endeavor to improve the traffic environment on campus step by step by solving trivial problems, as the matter cannot be resolved all at once. Moreover, the authorities should remember it is important to manage traffic facilities and carry out current plans rather than establish new parameters. CNU has to have a deeper interest in transportation facilities and try to make a better environment on campus.