<p>DD just called and said that one of her classmates who lived in the Hyatt Cambridge was hit by a car last pm trying to cross the street in front of the hotel. Prayers for the girls family are going up from DD and I.</p>
<p>Oh no! How tragic.</p>
<p>That is horrible! Oh, I am so sorry. Sending thoughts. </p>
<p>Students like in the Hyatt Cambridge? I've stayed and visited that hotel and had no idea it is being used for housing!!</p>
<p>So tragic and sad for this girl's family.
My niece is applying to BU and my kids have friends who attend.</p>
<p>Still have goosebumps on both arms and now with tears in my eyes. Can't imagine getting the phone call. DD said the media is still around the Hyatt now. I am ready for Thanksgiving break to be here.</p>
<p>The Hyatt houses 400-500 kids each fall. They ride a shuttle across the BU bridge to main campus. I believe new housing is being built.</p>
<p>Ah, we saw several police cars and an ambulance out the window last night (our apt building is right next to the hotel). I wondered what had happened. Terrible.</p>
<p>They need to fix that crosswalk, or the intersection in general...</p>
<p>Do you have a name? (first of last) Just a little nervous here.</p>
<p>No name. DD said the girl was an international student.</p>
<p>Thanks, lets me breathe easier, but so sad. I wonder if she was from a country where they drive on the left side of the street. You instinctively look the wrong way.</p>
<p>The girl was reportedly from Venezuela.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>They ride a shuttle across the BU bridge to main campus. I believe new housing is being built.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>I think they are "planning" to build new housing...but so far as I know, none is in the construction phase at this point. </p>
<p>I'm so sorry to hear of this tragedy. My prayers are with the family.</p>
<p>This is just so terrible...it is hard to not think about it. I used to live on Memorial drive for three years when I went to college. I didn't realize about the BU housing there. My D's very close friend is a frosh at BU. That is a very busy street. If the family is so far away, it just makes it so much worse, and that she just began college.</p>
<p>BU uses has quite a range of housing:</p>
<p>Hotels: The Hyatt and Holiday Inn Brookline
Due to housing capacity shortages, many incoming students are temporarily housed in hotels during the fall semester. These hotels include the Hyatt Regency Cambridge on the opposite bank of the Charles, and the Holiday Inn Brookline, both a manageable walk to main campus with free shuttle bus service provided. Students at the Holiday Inn are also provided with a complimentary MBTA Subway pass, as the Green Line C passes nearby on Beacon Street. In both cases, students enjoy maid service twice a week, which is not present in standard housing assignments. They also receive a 50% discount on hotel food and merchandise. However, the cable service at the Hyatt Regency has far fewer channels than typical service in BU dorms.</p>
<p>575 Commonwealth Avenue
One of the hotels frequently used in this way was the former Howard Johnson hotel at 575 Commonwealth Avenue, next to the School of Management's Rafik Hariri Building. In 2001, the University closed the hotel (which it owned) and converted the building into a full time dormitory, now known as 575 Commonwealth Avenue. Rooms are commonly divided into triples, although there are a few doubles and singles. Every room comes with its own bathroom and air conditioning, a luxury not present in most rooms on campus. Students lovingly refer to it as either 575 or the HoJo.</p>
<p>575 Commonwealth Avenue has its own cafe (located on the ground level) that is open nightly from 7pm-1am. Cafe 575 is also open Monday-Friday from 7:30-10:30am. Cash, Dining Points, and Convenience Points are accepted.</p>
<p>"However, the cable service at the Hyatt Regency has far fewer channels than typical service in BU dorms."</p>
<p>Because the number of cable channels REALLY matters when you choose a college.</p>
<p>Memorial Drive has few traffic lights in that area and speeding has been a problem for years. The accident is very sad and I feel for the young woman's family.</p>
<p>^And this particular traffic light takes forever to give a walk signal... I'll admit I've crossed the street there many times without waiting for the signal. Yikes.</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad a floormate was running a 'bridge circuit' and got hit by a car and was killed. There is special meaning to the name 'memorial drive.'</p>
<p>I hope that BU provides reflective gear to all students, and educates them (especially if they are international students accustomed to a country where the population drives on the other side of the road) rather than assuming they will always 'shuttle.'</p>
<p>Memorial Drive is a very dangerous road, especially for pedestrians. BU should reconsider housing students there.</p>
<p>Some of you are familiar with the annual Clery reports detailing crimes on campus. These were instituted after a young woman was murdered on the Lehigh campus. However, colleges are not required to report traffic accidents, injuries, or fatalities on campus. In the past two years, four pedestrians have been killed in traffic accidents on the University of Illinois campus, and thirty others injured. Traffic problems on that campus are appalling, especially considering it is one of the preeminent civil engineering colleges in the nation. Yet few potential students or their families are aware of these abysmal traffic statistics. I’m not familiar with the Boston area, but several of you have posted that the street on which the young woman at BU was killed is dangerous. How many students applying to BU registered that this might be a problem?</p>
<p>Parents and potential students may want to start asking some hard questions about pedestrian safety on campus. What are colleges doing to make sure their students are safe? Must students routinely cross busy roads? Do college security people ticket speeders and those who ignore stop signs? Are street crossings adequate? Is lighting adequate at intersections? Is the campus self-contained so off-campus traffic does not routinely traverse campus? Although urban areas usually have greater traffic problems than rural areas, some urban colleges have purchased whole streets and closed them to traffic to make their campuses safe for pedestrians.</p>
<p>These questions may seem too detailed. However, being aware and avoiding potential problems is better than coming home in a body bag. </p>
<p>Momnipotent, I don’t know about Venezuela, but here in the United States, there is no phone call. Uniformed policemen show up on the doorstep to announce, “Your daughter has been killed in a traffic accident on campus. We’re don’t have any more details.” The horror of the situation cannot be imagined by anyone who has not experienced it.</p>
<p>What happened is tragic and my thoughts are with the family.</p>
<p>In terms of campus safety, though, I don't think that the problem is the street or area (at least in BU's case). While I agree that both Memorial Drive and Comm Ave are extremely busy roads and that there are tons of bad drivers who run red lights (especially after 1am Thurs-Sat), I don't think that is the problem. </p>
<p>Since I graduated and moved to Brighton, I've had to drive through campus several times, and I constantly have students running/walking across the street in front of my car when I have a green light. Usually I can just slow down and everything is fine, but I have had to stop short once or twice.</p>
<p>Off the top of my head, there were two big incidents where someone was struck by a car on Comm Ave when I was at BU and both involved a student being hit by a car that had the right of way. Should drivers be more careful and drive slower on Comm Ave? Sure, but a lot of these kids are blindly running into the street--and that's a real problem. I've heard stories of kids getting hit by the T--and it's not like the T just comes out of nowhere. </p>
<p>I do agree, however, that BU should stop using the Hyatt. I've stayed in both the Hotel Commonwealth and the Hyatt during intercessions, and the HoCo was amazing. I hated the Hyatt. It's a bit of a trek to get anywhere--I remember having to walk 20 minutes when it was hailing just to get food one night.</p>
<p>There are a variety of engineering and safety measures that could be taken to make drivers slow down in areas of heavy pedestrian use and to alter vehicular and pedestrian traffic patterns to reduce accidents. Some colleges adjacent to crime-ridden urban areas have developed long term plans to improve those off campus areas. Likewise, because of the concentration of pedestrians on campuses, colleges need to develop effective safe pedestrian plans on and near their campuses. Blaming the students won't make reduce accidents. Correcting inherent engineering and safety problems will. (The students were legally in crosswalks at intersections in at least two of the UIUC deaths.) </p>
<p>Deaths on campus from fraternity hazing, alcohol poisoning, or murder make national news and influence students' decisions on which colleges to attend. However, deaths from traffic accidents do not. Yet, on many campuses traffic accidents are a much larger problem. How many students or parents have ever inquired about traffic safety on campuses? A student killed by a vehicle is just as dead as one poisoned by alcohol.</p>