Officer Justin Gaines stopped groups of students crossing Clarke Street against the pedestrian signal at the Hancock Street intersection and had them return to the opposite corner.

“This pedestrian intersection is confusing,” Gaines said. “Students crossing north and south must push the crossing button to gain the right of way. The east and west crossers get an automatic right of way sign. It really confuses the students.”

An estimated 2,000 students cross that intersection daily along the main route into downtown Milledgeville. Some students cross multiple times walking to and from classes and to eat in Maxwell Student Union.

“We encourage students living in the dorms along Greene Street to walk or ride their bikes because parking is atrocious,” Gaines said. “But they all have to come through this intersection.”

Heavy traffic along Hancock Street that includes 18-wheeler, tractor-trailer trucks traveling Ga. State Highway 49 wiz through the intersection causing additional hazards for pedestrians.

Monday morning officers stopped at least two drivers for failing to yield the right of way at the intersection.

More than 150 Georgia pedestrians were struck and killed by vehicles during 2007. Cars struck three Georgia College pedestrians in the crosswalks during the past academic year at the Clarke/Hancock streets intersection.

“Those incidents launched our safety campaign and requests to the state Department of Transportation for changes at the intersection,” Gaines said.

Georgia College asked the state department earlier this year to make crossing at all four corners automatic pedestrian rights of way, but that has not happened. The university plans to pursue that option, Gaines said.

Less than 100 yards east students, faculty and staff navigate a second pedestrian crossing along Hancock Street. That crosswalk is in the middle of the block.

“It’s a pedestrian right of way crossing all the time,” Gaines said. “By law, oncoming vehicle traffic must stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk.”