One part of UCF culture I have observed, is the sidewalk-highway system. The sidewalks on our campus are not just sidewalks for walking on, but also for skating, biking, skateboarding, running, scootering, and even driving. Having UCF’s sidewalks function as roads, makes getting around campus a hullabaloo for everyone. Navigating your way to class must be done with caution because at many points along your journey you are certain to have close encounters with bikers, and skateboarders, at the least. There is also a good possibility of someone in a utility vehicle, or golf cart stalking up behind you. Many times you will even find people on scooters or rollerblades squeezing by you on the walkway. This college campus culture has come to annoy me because I don’t like to share the road. I don’t like when people on skateboards and bikes whiz past me at speeds far greater then my own with risk of encountering crowds and crashing into someone. This has been known to happen, especially with skateboarders. I don’t want to be walking down the sidewalk and to have a skateboard come loose under someone for whatever reason and roll right into the back of my ankle. If that happened hard enough that could really make walking tough from then on. Nor would I like to be run over by a bicycle, or knocked down by either one. I’ve seen multiple times where skateboarders have almost hit people; one time a student jumped off his board to avoid hitting another skateboarder and landed in a bike rack. This was quite hysterical of course, but could have hurt someone easily.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Commentary Outline
Part 1-
- In part one I will introduce the trend of skateboarding and bicycling on sidewalks at UCF that I am unhappy with and explain what about the trend upsets me.
Part 2-
- In part two I will give my first hand experiences with this trend and provide examples and visuals as to why this trend is unsatisfactory, annoying, and dangerous. Perspective from a students view.
Part 3-
- In part three I will provide research feedback from another student I have interviewed on the topic and information on the start of this trend and give his opinion.
Part 4-
- In part four I will give examples of the dangers of this trend from friend injuries and possible occurrences like my friend falling off his board and getting scraped up.
Part 5-
- In part five I will explain what I believe campus would be like without this trend, if the sidewalks were for walking only.
+ changes that need to be made to rough draft- include more of the other prospective on the topic; made bolder, more obvious thesis statement; add partner interview as a research source; find when the trend started and use research source; make citations and word cited pgage( in lungsford book); put in MLA format
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Commentary Draft
One part of UCF culture I have observed, and become unhappy with, is the sidewalk-highway system. The sidewalks on campus are not just sidewalks for walking, but also for skating, biking, skateboarding, running, scootering, and even driving. Navigating your way to class must be done with caution because at many points along your journey you are certain to have close encounters with bikers, and skateboarders, at the least. There is also a good possibility of someone in a utility vehicle, or golf cart stalking up behind you. Many times you will even find people on scooters or rollerblades squeezing by you on the walkway. This college campus culture has come to annoy me because I don’t like to share the road. I don’t like when people on skateboards and bikes whiz past me at speeds far greater then my own with risk of encountering crowds and crashing into someone. This has been known to happen, especially with skateboarders. I don’t want to be walking down the sidewalk and to have a skateboard come loose under someone for whatever reason and roll right into the back of my ankle. If that happened hard enough that could really make walking tough from then on. Nor would I like to be run over by a bicycle, or knocked down by either one. I’ve seen multiple times where skateboarders have almost hit people; one time a student jumped off his board to avoid hitting another skateboarder and landed in a bike rack. This was quite hysterical of course, but could have hurt someone easily.
This morning I was walking back from my algebra class, and as I crossed down one of the narrow sidewalks, an oncoming bicyclist traveling about 10mph came only inches from my side with his handlebars as he squeezed past me on the small windy sidewalk. This greatly irritated me, because at the slightest sideways movement, I could have been clipped by this bicyclist. I literally had to walk all the way to the side of the sidewalk and lean away from him as he passed me. I do not appreciate this unnecessary effort that I am obligated to partake in just to keep from being ran over. I just want to be able to walk to and from class on the sidewalks, as though it were only a sidewalk and not a road. I wish I could travel the campus without feeling like I was playing the game Frogger, or crossing a road, when I am just walking down the sidewalk. I must always make sure to check behind me when I wish to change my path of travel to make sure I am not going to get run over. Its like driving down the road, I must look over my shoulder before switching lanes, that is why I refer to the sidewalks as a highway.
I have a friend who rides a skateboard to class, and he came home with bruises on his knees and forearm, because he had to jump off his board to avoid hitting a walker on the sidewalk. Now this is not particularly disturbing because the walker was not hit, only the skater was injured. But that’s a risk they take skating to class. So not only are walkers at risk but so are the skaters, since walking students can come out into their path of travel, and they don’t have brakes as do bicyclists. But bicyclists are also dangerous to the walkers even though they have breaks, because they tend to travel at higher speeds. My roommate has a bicycle, it’s a ten speed, and as many of the other students with road bikes, he travels very fast on it. So if anyone on a bike were to hit a walking student, it would be a greater force with more speed hitting them.
So as a result of these dangers, I have come up with a solution. Not a perfect solution, but one that could potentially benefit the campus a small amount, and could possibly prevent some injuries. I propose we designate some “No zones”. These will be zones in which only people walking can travel. The no zones will be any of the thin sidewalks on campus. This should not be a problem or much inconvenience to bikers or skaters because almost all of the sidewalks are about 10 feet in width, but a few are only 3 feet or so. The one I almost got hit by a biker on was one of those narrow 3 foot sidewalks. I believe these narrow sidewalks simply do not supply enough room to have people on skateboards and bicycles mixed in with walkers. So they should be limited to only walkers, and everyone else can use the wide sidewalks for travel. If necessary they can use the bike lane on the side of the road to travel, but anywhere on campus is accessible by large sidewalks because there are so many students, all buildings have large sidewalks to access them by. Therefore this should not cause problems for anyone, it will simply take the most vulnerable place for injury, out of possible places for that to occur.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Partner Responces
5 questions for my commentary
Thursday, October 1, 2009
UCF Culture
One part of UCF culture I have observed, and become unhappy with, is the sidewalk-highway system. The sidewalks on campus are not just sidewalks for walking, but also for skating, biking, skateboarding, running, scootering, and even driving. Navigating your way to class must be done with caution because at many points along your journey you are certain to have close encounters with bikers, and skateboarders, at the least. There is also a good possibility of someone in a utility vehicle, or golf cart stalking up behind you. Also, many times you will find people on scooters or rollerblades squeezing by you on the walkway. This college campus culture has come to annoy me because I don’t like to share the road. I don’t like when people on skateboards and bikes whiz past me at speeds far greater then my own with risk of encountering crowds and crashing into someone. This has been known to happen, especially with skateboarders. I don’t want to be walking down the sidewalk and to have a skateboard come loose under someone for whatever reason and roll right into the back of my ankle. I mean if that happened hard enough that could really make walking anymore tough. Nor would I like to be run over by a bicycle or knocked down by either one. I’ve seen multiple times where skateboarders have almost hit people, one time a student jumped off his board to avoid hitting another skateboarder and landed in a bike rack. This was quite hysterical of course, but could have hurt someone easily.