Recent improvements on Lakeshore Path were completed in an attempt to make it safer for students while preserving its natural ambiance.
According to UW-Madison Facilities Planning and Management director Al Fish, such improvements include raising the path to prevent flooding, adding mulch for erosion control and adding black top in certain areas.
One of the goals was not to provide more lighting to the path, said Gary Brown, UW-Madison assistant director for planning and landscape architecture.
\The police department has told us that it is safer not to have lighting down there because it is actually harder to see into the wooded areas because those are dark and the path is light and your eyes can't adjust to see,"" he said.
According to Brown, lighting provides a more dangerous situation than not having lights because prowlers can see you but you cannot see them.
Fish said the decision included a ""big debate"" and was made with the consultation of a variety of public meetings and input from both the community and students.
""We believe that by clearing out the areas that we did and adding more safe surfaces and putting in those call boxes, we still have a certain level of response to the safety issue,"" Fish said. ""And at the same time we have preserved that natural feel that many wanted to preserve and that was the trade-off that was decided on at this point.""
Brown cites the one emergency call box between the Lakeshore dorms and Memorial Union placed behind Elizabeth Waters as a new safety precaution, but according to him, one would have to be placed every 30 feet in order for a victim to reach it in time.
Yet female students still expressed apprehension over the reputation of Lakeshore Path.
""The [university] should put more blue emergency lights like they have at other college campuses, and I think people just have to be smarter,"" UW-Madison freshman Emily Byrne said.
""Don't go there at night if you don't want to get raped,"" UW-Madison freshman Carina Marquez-Earrintos said. ""They only have one [emergency call box] in the middle and it doesn't make me feel safe.""
Both Fish and Brown discourage students from taking Lakeshore Path when it is dark, and say lighting would only encourage more people to use it at night. ""We prefer that students use the lighted way on campus,"" Brown said.
""The choice of not providing lighting was one that was well-debated and carefully made,"" Fish said. ""It is certainly an issue that could be revisited if there was sufficient concern.\
