>The recent rash of pedestrian crosswalk accidents, together with the comments made by blog readers, has left me wondering what the solution is. It’s clear to me that a lot of people fall into two opposing camps. There are those that feel the pedestrian has the right of way, and unless there’s evidence that the pedestrian lurched out without looking, the driver always has the responsibility the stop and yield. This folks, is basically the law. The other camp is of the mindset that crosswalks should only be used by pedestrians after they have stopped and waited for a clearing in traffic before stepping out. This might be a sensible thing to do based upon the general lousy standard of driving, but it really makes a mockery out of having a crosswalk. Why bother having a crosswalk if you have to wait for the traffic to pass? You may as well just cross anywhere if this is what you are expected to do.
So, with minds pretty well entrenched as far as crosswalk responsibility goes, what do we do? We are wasting our time here giving the same old stories of elderly ladies darting out into crosswalks and maniac drivers who should be stopping on a dime. Minds are made up already. We have debated crosswalk responsibility to death.
Speed is a problem. I’m not talking the rare dangerous levels, but the extra 10-15 mph that is almost universally practiced. This extra speed is often enough to cause accidents due to reduced reaction times. Injury and damage is also greatly affected by higher speeds. This is also a crosswalk problem as drivers often see the person standing at the crosswalk too late, and keep going as they think a sudden stop will result in getting rear-ended. Add a cell phone to the mix and the problem intensifies.
Speeding enforcement by the Police needs to be better managed. This isn’t an anti-police statement, as I understand that speed management is taken seriously by them, but I get the impression that speeding is a sensitive subject with Village residents and the Police, and there seems to be a level which the Police will delicately straddle in order to maintain good relations. I say hogwash. If motorists know full well that there is a high level of probability of being ticketed if they speed, any anti-Police notions they have will soon go away. The Police aren’t supposed to be in a popularity contest. All I ask of them is that they are civil and honest while doing their job, which from my experience, is the norm. I actually think that the USA lags far behind our European cousins, where speed enforcement is managed mostly by automated cameras. This allows the Police to do more worthwhile things with their time, and leave speed management to machines. The good thing with machines is that they do not discriminate. You speed. You get a citation in the mail. I can tell you from living in Europe that the introduction of speed cameras revolutionized driving standards. It went from anything goes to some pretty sensible driving very quickly. Public reaction was negative, but that was expected. Has anyone got one of those tickets in the mail from NYC for running a red light? I have. Just one. You know what? I am now very respectful about my red light time management now.
Crosswalks need to be updated to the times we live in, and should have push-button operated stop lights. Drivers seem to react fairly well to traffic lights. If any of you have been to Europe in the last 20 years, you will know that it’s extremely rare to find a crosswalk that isn’t managed by stop lights. Yes, more traffic lights results in more congestion, but without them, we will not solve the problem.