The traffic on Dan Allen Drive is a nightmare. It’s spring; the weather is warm and birds are chirping, but many students are cooped up in cars in stop-and-go traffic. During rush hour, I often find myself walking at the speed of traffic next to the road.

Certainly, when you have 30,000 students and even more staff and faculty trying to get to one small area every day, traffic is always going to be a problem. However, there has got to be something that can be done to loosen the gridlock on Dan Allen. One reason traffic on Dan Allen is so bad is that people driving north invariably get stuck behind the Wolfline, which stops about every hundred yards. The obvious solution to this is to create a bus lane. There is enough room on both sides of the road for an extra lane, and it would save people traveling north a lot of time.

If an extra lane is too expensive, a cheaper solution would be to remove some bus stops on Dan Allen. The stop beside Nelson Hall could be moved to the access road that runs parallel to Hillsborough Street, and the stops beside Harris Hall and the Student Health Center could be removed altogether.

Most that use the Wolfline are off-campus students headed to class, so these two stops would not be missed. It might cause some extra walking, but we’re college students. That’s what we do.

Another problem with Dan Allen Drive is the three-way stop sign at the Sullivan Drive intersection. I admit that the situation now is much better than the intersection was a few years ago, when only drivers on Sullivan had to stop. Then, a person could sit at Sullivan for 10 minutes waiting for a break in traffic to get on Dan Allen.

Nevertheless, even with little traffic, the three-way stop forces drivers to do a lot of stopping and starting, which slows them down and hurts fuel efficiency. Increased traffic exacerbates these problems. The three-way stop should be replaced with a traffic circle. There is plenty of extra room to put one in, and a roundabout on Dan Allen would work even better than the one on Pullen Road because it could be bigger. This would give people on Sullivan a chance to get into the traffic circle because they would not have to worry about cutting off drivers on Dan Allen who haven’t even entered the circle yet. A roundabout would accomplish all the goals of the three-way stop because drivers would still have to slow down on Dan Allen, and people on Sullivan would be able to turn. However, traffic would flow more smoothly because there would be fewer stops, and the confusion of an intersection where up to three drivers stop and none have the right of way would be eliminated. These are solutions that should be addressed by the administration and Student Government. However, anyone reading this can chip in by avoiding unnecessary driving on Dan Allen.

Traffic is bad long after 5 p.m. on this road because students jump at the opportunity to park on campus and drive to class. Just take the Wolfline; it’s never crowded that late anyway.

Other options include biking or walking, which allow you to enjoy warm spring weather rather than enduring traffic jams. The beauty of this campus and its bus system is that students are able to get around without having cars. If more of us took advantage of that, traffic on campus wouldn’t be such a hassle.

E-mail Brian your suggestions on how to improve campus traffic at [email protected].