Campus Safety officers will begin issuing infractions to students caught speeding, running stops signs, and texting while driving on campus.
Officers have been running a traffic safety awareness campaign throughout October, handing out pamphlets to drivers at Carleton to let them know about the change.
Jeff Condie, acting sergeant and community liaison officer for Campus Safety, said the handouts are the start of a three-step process towards issuing actual fines for infractions.
“We wanted to give everyone a heads-up before we started issuing actual fines, so that was the first step of the roll-out,” Condie said. “Beginning November, we will be starting to issue warnings and then in the third month we’ll start issuing violations.”
Proper traffic violation measures arriving to campus represent a recent change in the Traffic and Parking Bylaw. Under the old law, it prevented Carleton from being subject to the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario, as the campus is private property, Condie said. This meant that Campus Safety officers were unable to enforce the Highway Traffic Act.
“There was simply a warning mechanism, where we were able to advise people of the safety concerns that were involved in certain traffic violations that were occurring,” said Allan Burns, the director of the Department of University Safety.
Condie said Campus Safety is now enforcing the University Act, which gives authority to issue and fine for these violations.
As for the logistics of this new enforcement, Condie said that setting up radars around campus is still in the works.
He added the focus is on distracted driving and running stop signs, as those are the two most common traffic rules broken at Carleton.
According to Burns, the response to the campaign has been overwhelmingly positive, in part due to the frustrations previously expressed by a lack of traffic regulation enforcement.
“[From] what we’ve seen so far with the people we’ve talked to, there’s been great support for this,” Burns said. “I think everybody realizes this is a problem, especially if you’re a pedestrian trying to cross some of our crosswalks.”
Minzhong Wang, a second-year communications student, has been driving to Carleton for half a year. While he said he welcomes the change, he said most drivers have been automatically applying Ontario’s traffic laws on campus.
“Before the new laws I haven’t seen anybody [speeding] or running stop signs,” Wang said. “I think the new laws won’t change much as people are already aware of Ontario’s traffic laws and apply them when driving on campus.”
Burns said the new traffic regulation enforcement resembles the regulations put in place for parking on campus years ago.
“We have had parking regulations in place for years and people realize that you can’t park illegally on campus, and if you do there will be a warning or fine issued. The same is now going to happen for traffic violations,” he said.
While Burns said the new regulations will benefit the safety of both drivers and pedestrians, he added the enforcement will serve as a reminder to the duties of drivers at Carleton.
“[Driving on campus] is a privilege, not a right, and so [drivers] have to obey the traffic regulations much like everyone else,” Burns said. “That’s not something unusual to expect from the people operating on our campus.”
