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
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