Increased police presence intended to curb traffic violations

Local and university police have been keeping a focused eye on traffic
around the UI campus over the past few weeks - and have been handing out
more tickets and warnings as a result.

"The police departments of Urbana, Champaign and the UI began conducting a
number of intensive traffic enforcement operations in the campus area on
[Aug. 21]," says Capt. Rick Kallmayer, the UI police department's patrol
division commander. "We have a number of officers dedicated to looking for
certain kinds of violations in certain areas."

Among the problems is speeding, even during class changes when large
numbers of students are crossing busy streets, he said. Also, too many
drivers are disobeying traffic control signals.

The increased enforcement, being implemented for the first time this year,
grows out of discussions within the Campus Safety Task Force that was
formed last spring, Kallmayer said. The task force was formed in the wake
of a Feb. 9 accident in which a student was struck by a vehicle and killed
while walking across a campus section of Green Street in Urbana.

With the return of students in significant numbers, swelling the numbers of
drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians, "the campus area once again has been
transformed into one of the most congested traffic systems in the state of
Illinois," Kallmayer said.

"We are asking that everyone travelling through the campus area use extra
caution and care."