The City Has A Plan For Crossing the Street

Any of you chickens who have been trying to cross the street will be glad to know the City of Seattle released its Pedestrian Master Plan, which answers the timeless question of how you will cross the street. The answer will involve spending $60 million over the next six years for ~~Segways for all~~ fancy crosswalks, raised sidewalks, warning signs, traffic lights, and police to provide $46 jaywalking citations (don't get us started). Crossing the street is one thing, but playing a mean game of Frogger by dodging cars in order to safely cross the streets, that's a whole other issue--we're not squawking that something's being done.

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By Kim P. in News on May 7, 2009 9:00 AM

Comments [rss]

henry

Not a big fan of the jaywalking ticketing, but hopefully the police will practice discretion when deciding when to ticket.

Also, I hate to be a doucehbag donny, but you also have an apostrophe catastrophe in your last sentence.

sevenless

If I recall correctly (probably not) the fine is $84--at least in Kirkland. A while back on the news there was a report about a crosswalk violator sting in Kirkland. They had this old guy trying to cross and would pull over whoever didn't stop and give them a ticket.

They need to set up an afternoon of that at, say, the 45th street crosswalks/deathtraps in Wallingford. Especially the one by the freakin' library.

Balzaak

how about doing it like the real cities do and -

1. trust that most people are smart enough to decide when it's safe to cross a street all by themselves. (getting a ticket for crossing a barren pioneer square intersection on a red is a sign that SPD is overstaffed)

2. fine drivers who fail to give the right of way to a person crossing a street at a crosswalk and in a safe manner that gives a non-douchey driver ample time to stomp.

3. Limit the ticketing of pedestrians to those that are stepping into oncoming traffic in an unsafe manner (rush hour traffic, lots of cars with no room to stop safely)

Anyone knows what the fine is for failing to give the pedestrian the right of way at a crosswalk? I'm sure it's a lot more than ticket a pedestrian for crossing at a red, or at least it should be since a car is a lot more lethal than a high-speed walker.