Students' Return Means Increased Car, Foot Traffic

By: Bonney Bowman - Email

Updated: Mon 10:31 PM, Aug 20, 2012

Another school year is under way at the University of Nebraska and that means the students are back in town.

It's good news for local businesses like Jimmy John's, which see a boost in sales when the student foot traffic comes back.

General manager Brandon Buchholz says, "Sales do increase, yeah. We're also able to provide more jobs for more people so that's kind of a cool thing that comes along with it."

The sandwich shop hires 10 UNL students to help meet the need their peers create.

The delivery guys are also busier, heading back and forth from campus.

Buchholz says they like being so close to the university, saying, "Just seeing all the students and seeing the population growth in such a small period of time in the city, seeing an extra 20, 30,000 kids in the city."

More students equals more cars on the roads and headaches for local drivers.

Scott Opfer, Street Traffic Operations Manager for the city of Lincoln, says drivers need to be careful, "Especially in the downtown area or around the campuses, they encounter a lot of pedestrians and bicycles so you see a lot of conflicts, vehicles turning corners and a lot of pedestrians."

There's also a lot of construction going on in the city and on campus.

Opfer says, "We had a city downtown resurfacing project going on this year and we're wrapping that up here in the next couple weeks so they'll be some minor traffic blockages due to that but for the most park our streets have been redone."

Drivers are asked to slow down and watch out for pedestrians.

It's the best way to keep everyone safe.

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