Many, many students commute to Kent State every day, so it’s important for a great number of us to know that the roads on and around the campus are the safest they could be.

And not only motorists have to be concerned about the roads. Plenty other students walk or bike on these same roads – and they don’t even have the reassurance of being buckled into a car.

Many roads here could use a facelift, and that means more than just patching up a pothole or two (no one can deny Kent has a bit of a pothole problem, especially after a good, hard winter that Kent is famous for). It means doing some full-on renovations.

Some roads have endured so many potholes and so many quick fixes that they simply need to be torn up and rebuilt. It would be a great investment by either the city of Kent or the university – depending on whose land the road falls on.

Some areas, especially the intersections where students often cross, could use much better visibility. Widening the intersections or adding a crossing signal so students can be absolutely sure when it’s safe to cross could help pedestrian safety. Some intersections could use “no turn on red” laws so pedestrians aren’t invisible to a driver checking for oncoming traffic while making a right turn at a red light.

Even some of the sidewalks could be renovated a bit. No one wants to be walking along and trip, making them almost totally invisible to a motorist. Bad sidewalks get even worse when you add snow, ice and rain to the mix.

With so many students opting to bike from place to place, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for roads to be widened to include a bike lane. Biking to class is a great option as it saves both gas money and the environment – but no one is really promoting the act when there’s no safe place to bike. Not even the sidewalks are an option as it’s against state law to ride a bike there.

Keeping students safe is, we have to assume, a major priority for a university and the community. There have been talks of renovating some of the roads, but we just hope it happens sooner than later and to some of the more accident-prone areas.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.