Austin police targeting jaywalkers

[JAM]

This really burns me up. The walk signs in this city give you 5 seconds to cross before they flash don't walk. This doesn't mean you don't have the right-away as a pedestrian. Drivers should also be targeted in these situations, not just pedestrians. Yes, lets encourage people to drive, but not walk. I'm writing the chief of police on this one.



Austin police targeting jaywalkers
Aim of tickets, warnings is to cut down on auto-pedestrian collisions, department says.
By Sue Banerjee
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, May 29, 2008

Cross the streets of Austin with caution, or you could get a ticket.

Police officers are patrolling the city and issuing tickets and warnings to pedestrians who jaywalk or fail to follow the instructions of crosswalk devices.

Tickets are classified as a Class C misdemeanor and can cost the offender up to $500.

"Everyone is in a hurry, and that's the human factor," officer Jerry Muhamet said. "People are rushing to and from work, and if you combine that with drivers who aren't paying attention, there can be a serious problem."

Patrol officers have made an increased push citywide to focus on controlling pedestrian violations.

Jaywalking, or walking in the middle of the street without using a crosswalk, and disregarding traffic control devices can have dangerous consequences.

Police officials calculate that there have been 465 auto-pedestrian collisions in 2007 and that they accounted for 24 fatalities that year. An additional 73 auto-pedestrian collisions have been reported through March.

Police Chief Art Acevedo has made it a priority to address the prevalence of these incidences, Muhamet said.

Austin Municipal Court officials said that so far this year, 1,083 tickets have been filed for pedestrians crossing midblock, a dramatic increase from the 464 tickets that were issued for pedestrians crossing midblock in 2007 and the 283 given for the same violation in 2006.

Muhamet has been driving around the streets of downtown Austin for five years and said he knows the hot spots for careless street crossings.

Streets in a three-block radius from the corner of East Sixth and Neches streets and the length of Congress Avenue are where people are often caught disobeying the law, he said.

Students, faculty members and businesspeople are also frequently caught off-guard at 24th and Guadalupe streets on the University of Texas campus.

Muhamet said the peak times for violators is usually early in the morning and during lunchtime and rush hour.

Muhamet said he thinks that half the people he stops realize they are crossing illegally and the other half are distracted or merely focused on getting from one point to the next.

Most of the walkers one recent day scratched their heads in astonishment when stopped.

"I crossed the street without realizing I didn't have the right of way," Austin resident Derek Work said after he was recently stopped for crossing while the don't-walk warning sign was on.

"I was half asleep."



Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...29jaywalk.html

[M1EK]

My crackpresponse here

[JAM]

I didn't think about that. Good points. My main beef is with the pedestrian signals. If they don't work, why bother going down to one.

apd3@ci.austin.tx.us (This is APD's email address)

I wrote a quick letter, Didn't bother getting too detailed, who knows if the Chief will ever see it:

Dear Chief Art Acevedo,

I am an frequent downtown walker. Please consider that MOST of the automated pedestrian signs in this city flash "Don't walk" after about 5 seconds. This does not provide enough time to cross the street. This leaves the pedestrian stranded in the middle of the intersection. Drivers then see the flashing "Don't walk" and assume they have the right away. I can't tell you how many drivers have honked at me and my wife while we were legally crossing the street. Some have even came close to hitting us when we had the right-away. Please crack down on these drivers as well.

Everyone knows your not supposed to Jay-Walk. That is well in-grained in our society. However, not everyone understands that a flashing "Don't walk sign" does not mean your walk time has expired and you better be out of the street. The count-down timers found in other cities in the nation (such as San Francisco) are an answer to this problem. I know some will be installed on Caesar Chavez soon. I hope all Austin streets follow. Meanwhile, drivers need to be educated in this area. I think this should also be a newspaper article.

Thank you for you time.

[OfCourse]

I remember seeing this on the news about a month ago. I was pretty annoyed.

[JAM]

Just got a response from APD. Here it is:

Your email was sent to the Chief’s office.

Public Information Office
Austin Police Department
(512)-974-5017
PIO-3445

[Raining Inside]

There's a huge difference between people who run out in front of cars in mid-block and those hurrying across the street at a cross walk before the light changes. I don't understand the problem here.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by Raining Inside

There's a huge difference between people who run out in front of cars in mid-block and those hurrying across the street at a cross walk before the light changes. I don't understand the problem here.

If the city is going to exert resources on fining walkers that are breaking the law, then the should also exert equal resources to drivers who are breaking the law. i.e. not yeilding to pedestrians at cross walks when pedestrians have the right away.

Was my letter to the Chief not clear? If so, let me know so I can clear it up. I'm tired of getting honked at and nearly run over by pricks behind the wheel that don't yeild to pedestrians in the cross walk.

[KevinFromTexas]

I have to say, this is lame. There are times when crossing in the middle of the street is fine. Just be sure there are absolutely no cars coming. I run lights sometimes on my bike at crosswalks when there's no traffic coming. I'd rather do it then, then to try and cross an intersection when there are cars even if I have the green/walk sign. Not only is this lame, the kind of BS you'd expect in a small town, but the fine is outrageous. Good luck enforcing it!

Originally Posted by JAM

If the city is going to exert resources on fining walkers that are breaking the law, then the should also exert equal resources to drivers who are breaking the law. i.e. not yeilding to pedestrians at cross walks when pedestrians have the right away.

Yes, and cars pulling up into the crosswalk at intersections. That one really pisses me off. Another one is cars ignoring those automated crosswalks. The ones where you push a button to get the dedicated amber lights flashing to stop traffic so that you can cross. Most people ignore the lights and just keep on going. The city should realize they're wasting money in that situation. Spending tax payer dollars to put in a pedestrian crosswalk signal only to have carbarians (love that word!) ignore it and keep on going. They built one recently near my house shortly after the 2nd phase of the South Austin Campus took place. I love it, because I use it to cross Stassney frequently, but some people ignore it.

[ATXboom]

This could hurt tourism. Imagin and out of towner getting busted for jaywalking... not exactly a "walking friendly" downtown will be the impression.

Maybe this needs to go to the mayor as well?

[M1EK]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

II run lights sometimes on my bike at crosswalks when there's no traffic coming. I'd rather do it then, then to try and cross an intersection when there are cars even if I have the green/walk sign.

Please don't. Not only are you making a huge mistake in assuming you're more safe by doing so (overtaking accidents are so rare that their chance at an intersection like that one is effectively zero), you're also making it much much harder for cycling advocates to make any headway (people who only drive will balk at spending money on bike facilities, or even enforcing laws which protect cyclists, because "none of them obey the law anyways" - from personal experience on this one).

[MichaelB]

I find this very annoying. Hard to find balance.... but I live and walk and ride downtown for business and leisure all the time..... and there are many a lazy Sunday when we "roam free". I certainly hope our friends in Blue are allowed to make "judgements" and not just blanketly (sp?) ticket all infractions. Hell, Priller and I went on a walk today.... and though we talked about this.... we probably racked up a few hundred bucks today alone! (OK, not that bad... he is far more law abiding than me!)

[JAM]

Originally Posted by M1EK

Please don't. Not only are you making a huge mistake in assuming you're more safe by doing so (overtaking accidents are so rare that their chance at an intersection like that one is effectively zero), you're also making it much much harder for cycling advocates to make any headway (people who only drive will balk at spending money on bike facilities, or even enforcing laws which protect cyclists, because "none of them obey the law anyways" - from personal experience on this one).

I agree that it is safer to cross when there are no cars in the area, than wait for the walk sign and there are cars present. Unfortunately, Austin does not have the walking population density that cities like San Fran, Chicago or NYC have. When you have densities like that, the masses of people can fight off impatient pricks behind the wheel. In Austin, the impatient prick always wins this battle. They have no one to answer to, police don't do anything about it. Instead, they're going after jaywalkers.

[Jdawgboy]

I always use crosswalks when I am in downtown or anywhere for that matter. I do agree that the cross walking signs can be missleading and some of them do not give enough time especially if you have a large crowd of people trying to cross at the same time. Another issue I have is with people trying to turn when people are still crossing. Some of these people swear that they have the right of way when they do not.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by M1EK

Please don't. Not only are you making a huge mistake in assuming you're more safe by doing so (overtaking accidents are so rare that their chance at an intersection like that one is effectively zero), you're also making it much much harder for cycling advocates to make any headway (people who only drive will balk at spending money on bike facilities, or even enforcing laws which protect cyclists, because "none of them obey the law anyways" - from personal experience on this one).

There's a thread at the link below that talks about biking laws in Idaho. They allow bicyclists to yield to other traffic at red lights, rather than actually stop and wait for it to change. They have some interesting points with their reasoning behind it.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=151389

[LoneStarMike]

Sorry to bump an ancient thread, but I just wanted to let everyone know that the police are still targeting jaywalkers. I had jury duty today and was picked as a juror and the case was a woman (and her friend) who was cited for jaywalking at Neches and 7th.

Talk about a weird case. The cop's version of what happened and the woman's version of what happened couldn't have been more different.

The woman claimed she and her friend (who had just been released from Brackenridge) were headed south (away from Brackenridge) on Neches. She claimed that when she and her friend were on the NW corner of Neches and 7th, the walk sign was still on and they started to cross to the SW corner. While in the intersection, the "Don't Walk" sign started flashing, but they still had time to get completely across before the light changed. She claimed that when they were about halfway across the intersection, the cop drove by and saw them, and then issued her (and her friend) a citation.

The cop's version was that he was parked near the Homeless Center, and the woman and her friend were on the SE corner of Neches & 7th crossing to the NE side headed north (towards Brackenridge.) He also claimed that not only did the woman not have the "Walk" sign, the "Don't Walk" sign had completely stopped flashing before she stepped into the cross walk.

So we hear all the evidence and then at the very end of the trial when it was time for both sides to give their closing arguments, the prosecuting attorney waived his right to do so.

After a 5 minute recess, the jurors were called back into the courtroom and were told by the judge that the prosecuting attorney had decided to drop the case because there were too many inconsistencies in the cop's version.

We jurors never had the chance to discuss the case among ourselves, but I had already decided I was siding with the defendant. I believed her when she said they were coming from Brackenridge, which would have meant when she got to 7th Street, she would have had to cross it heading south, whereas the cop said she was headed north. I figured if the cop couldn't even get her direction of travel right, no telling what else he may have gotten wrong in his testimony.

For the record, I don't think the cop intentionally lied. I think it was a case of someone who writes a lot of citations every month, and got the facts in one case confused with another.

At any rate, I thought of you guys and this thread when I was sitting in the jury room.

[Jdawgboy]

I keep telling my friends when we are out downtown not to cross when their not supposed to but they don't listen to me. At any rate nobody has stopped them yet. I still always follow the law when it comes to crossing.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Sorry to bump an ancient thread, but I just wanted to let everyone know that the police are still targeting jaywalkers. I had jury duty today and was picked as a juror and the case was a woman (and her friend) who was cited for jaywalking at Neches and 7th.

Talk about a weird case. The cop's version of what happened and the woman's version of what happened couldn't have been more different.

Thanks for sharing LSM - now that cyclists are getting some attention on being protected, it would be nice if pedestrians would get some protection too.