From this week's Stranger:
Driver's EdPlainclothes cops are staking out crosswalks around Seattle, hoping to catch scofflaw drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians. In a typical sting, a cop starts out across a crosswalk, giving a motorist time to stop. If the driver doesn't, another cop catches the driver and issues a citation.
The cost of ignoring a crosswalk: $86. "A lot of people just don't seem to understand their obligation to pedestrians," says SPD Lieutenant Richard Belshay. "The citation is their education." One hundred seventy tickets have been issued in just five sting operations so far.
ERICA C. BARNETT
If I can't have pedestrian robots, plainclothes cops aren't a bad second.
What, I don't even get credit for sending it to you? What a gyp!
Anyway, note that threatening someone with potential vehicular manslaughter only costs about $40 more than crossing an empty street when a robot tells you not to: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/118788_jaywalk23.html
Or, even better, keep in mind that the cops will more frequently arrest you for walking around than they will if you're driving an automobile: http://www.zverina.com/2002/0420.htm
Basically, pedestrians are screwed--potential death at every crosswalk, hemmed in by red-yellow-green automatons that are timed to automobile traffic rates, and not supporting our nation's great automobile industry! Just give in: buy a car, you unpatriotic twits!
Posted by: Eric on May 29, 2003 07:01 AMIn case you don't believe me about the prioritization of pedestrians vs. automobiles:
The way [Seattle police] see it, jaywalkers contribute mightily to congestion when they walk at the "Don't Walk" sign.
"That's the car's time to turn," he said. "When they walk against the 'Don't Walk,' that is one of the worst cases of jaywalking, because it's preventing the cars from turning, so the cars block the intersections. [Stupid pedestrians, thinking they have the same rights as righteous and upstanding car-owning citizens!!]"
-- from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CarFree/message/2009
...amazing what a Google search for "seattle jaywalking" will get ya. Well, and a little judicious editing.
Posted by: Eric on May 29, 2003 07:08 AMI think PedBots(tm) would be much more amusing. It's nice to know that the police are doing their job, at least to some degree.
I wonder, though... what happens when someone runs over one of the cops? Still an $86 fine or does the driver have to pay for a Porkagese funeral?
Posted by: Liberty on May 29, 2003 12:16 PMOh, but Eric, isn’t it funny that in an entry about citations, I neglected to give you one?
Posted by: Jane on May 29, 2003 01:21 PM:P
Posted by: Eric on May 29, 2003 09:08 PM