Officials Want To Ensure Pedestrians Follow Rules [but not cars]
RANDALLSTOWN, Md. (WJZ) ― In the past six years, Baltimore County has invested $4 million in making roads safer for pedestrians.But, as Mary Bubala reports, now they need people to do their part.
One couple stepped out in front of cars, trying to cross four lanes of traffic on a busy Monday afternoon on Liberty Road. They ran quickly to avoid a car at one part. It's jaywalking and it's dangerous. County officials gathered not far away want to put an end to it.
"In Baltimore County, you are far more likely to die from a traffic accident than you are a victim of a homicide. While crime is down in Baltimore County, we have experienced a slight increase in pedestrian-related traffic fatalities in the past three years," said County Executive Jim Smith.
Baltimore County launched its pedestrian safety campaign in Randallstown, specifically at the Liberty Road corridor which sees a high number of traffic accidents each year involving pedestrians.
"Failure to cross at a signalized intersection--we see that along Liberty Road and frankly throughout the county each and every day when the crosswalk is but feet away," said Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson.
County statistics show pedestrians are often the ones causing the crashes by taking dangerous chances by crossing the street in the middle of it, instead of at crosswalks.
"Of our total fatal crashes in the county, the majority of these crashes are, in fact, pedestrian error. The pedestrian was at fault in 82% of these cases," Johnson said.
Police are now going to focus on enforcing basic traffic laws and ticket people failing to obey pedestrian control signals or failing to yield the right of way to a car when outside a crosswalk.
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[B' Spokes: I already covered the problem of drivers not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks but let's look at some other problems. One is drivers that block crosswalks when they are stopped, two is drivers so focused on making a right on red they fail to notice pedestrians on their right and often do not stop before the crosswalk before proceeding. And lastly ped signals that lie that are purposely placed only roads that are hard for pedestrians to cross.
What do I mean by ped signals that lie? We have all seen this the traffic light is green in the direction we want to cross and the stupid ped signal has the big red hand showing. This is in plain and simple terms a lie, false information that any reasonable person would ignore. Imagine for a second that you go into a building and use the elevator that is all ready to enter but as you do so cops come and give you a ticket for failing to use the call button and waiting for the elevator that you called. Sounds incredibly stupid, right? Yet that is exactly what traffic engineers expect pedestrains to do, wait through a light cycle for the ped light that they called. Only cars get automatic signals and pedestrains are second class citizens that have to play the game of "Mother may I" before getting the OK to cross.
Again I will strongly assert that traffic laws have to be enforced across the board and on both sides to solve this problem. Focusing just on the victims of poorly designed streets and outrageous self-centered car behavior is... well just outrageous.
You might be interested in revisiting what the public put down for Obstacles for walking and biking, District 4, Baltimore County <a href="http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20100503092908107">http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20100503092908107</a>; .] <a href="http://wjz.com/local/pedestrian.safety.2.1685855.html">http://wjz.com/local/pedestrian.safety.2.1685855.html</a>;
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