It’s graduation day and your mother is anxiously strolling down a sidewalk to attend your ceremony when suddenly her shoe becomes lodged in a deep crack as she barrels down onto the pavement.

This image was conjured up by Merilyn Hogan, the coordinator of Traffic and Parking, as a what if situation involving vehicular damage done to the lengthy network of campus sidewalks.

In several instances pedestrian sidewalks become service drives for utility vehicles and short cuts across campus. The paths also provide easy access to faculty offices.

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The situation is not conducive to a safe environment and it doesn’t look good, Hogan said.

Calling the situation his personal pet peeve, James Tweedy has seen enough ignorant vandalism of campus sidewalks.

Through his second-story office window in Anthony Hall, Tweedy, Traffic and Parking Committee chairman and vice chancellor for Administration, oversees more than traffic regulations.

Tweedy sees vehicles jump curbs to cross lawns, and notices University sidewalks are blighted by unauthorized vehicular traffic.

As a result, between Feb. 9 and March 1, vehicles caught traveling on University service drives, sidewalks or lawns without prior permission from the parking division will be issued a warning from SIUC police or University Parking. After March 1, any unauthorized sidewalk travel will cost the violator $15.

Unauthorized travelers include civilian vehicles, University service vehicles from the Grounds Department and Physical Plant and the white moped-like carts which use the sidewalks like a miniature interstate system.

SIU has been lax up to this point, Tweedy said. But it is time to put a stop to unauthorized sidewalk travel primarily because of safety.

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Deep ruts stamped alongside campus service drives and sidewalks created by vehicular traffic are unsafe and unattractive, Tweedy said.

To prevent unnecessary travel across sidewalks, orange pylons were placed near Anthony Hall. Pylons are slender cones rooted in the cement around campus to deter vehicles from challenging the structural integrity of steam tunnels that lie 2 feet below the sidewalks.

Harry Wirth is concerned about one steam tunnel in particular. The tunnel near Anthony Hall cannot support the weight of excessive traffic, Wirth said.

Wirth, director of Plant and Service Operations, said the tunnel is a life-safety issue and has advised his employees to avoid driving over those sidewalks. He said vehicular weight is shortening the life of the 4-foot tunnel, which contains communication and steam lines.

He further said that the sidewalk is in danger of collapsing.

If someone drives over the tunnel they could end up in the tunnel, he said.

Wirth said the orange pylons drilled into the ground to prevent travel over the tunnel are not doing their job.

Many of the strategically placed orange pylons that were once erect, now slump at their mid-sections like wilted dandelions.

Tweedy said some travelers frequent sidewalks and drive over the pylons more often than others.

What happens is people realize they’re plastic. In fact, I have seen some drivers for the Daily Egyptian newspaper routes just kind of run right over those, Tweedy said. They find out they’ll give and ignore them.

Everyone has been guilty of driving on sidewalks once or twice, Tweedy said, including himself.

I have driven on sidewalks before, which in the future would be inconsistent with these procedures, Tweedy said. And so I will follow these procedures, and I would expect that everybody else would follow these procedures.