Cell phone use by drivers isn't even mentioned. Has anyone here ever seen a driver with a cell phone glued to his or her ear stop for a pedestrian? --------------------------------- THU., FEB 8, 2007 - 11:17 AM If a pedestrian crosses, STOP
KATE SCHUMAN For the State Journal In Madison, stopping for pedestrians is simply not part of the driving culture. So says John Bauer, a leader of the Safe Community Coalition's two- year project on pedestrian safety, as well as representatives in the Madison and Wisconsin departments of transportation and a Madison police traffic safety expert. The law here is the same as everywhere else - drivers are required to yield to pedestrians in marked or unmarked crosswalks. But when the Madison Police Department's traffic safety team began to focus on pedestrian issues in 2000, it found few drivers who complied with the law, said Stacey Vilas, a retired officer who worked on the team. In an observational study at six locations in Madison and one in Oregon, just 21 out of 1,145 cars, or less than 2 percent, stopped for pedestrians in crosswalks. "One of the first people I pulled over for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, when I said, 'Do you know why I pulled you over?' and pointed to the pedestrian behind him, he said 'Oh my God, you've got to be kidding with me. You're messing with the culture here,'" Vilas said. "People are driving somewhat in an automatic-pilot mode. They're so accustomed that they could ignore pedestrians and pedestrians have been trained not to step off the curb." Traffic deaths were down overall in Wisconsin in 2006, but pedestrians deaths went up. Fifty-seven pedestrians were killed by cars in 2006, up from 42 in 2005. An average of about 1,500 pedestrians were injured each year in Wisconsin from 2000 to 2005. In Madison, about 100 pedestrians are hit each year, said Steve Meiers, a safety educator with the city Department of Transportation. >From 2000 to 2006, 13 pedestrians were killed, he said. Bauer's project, funded by a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aims to reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries, particularly among those 65 and older, and increase the number of motorists who yield to pedestrians. To accomplish these goals - and effectively reverse Madison's driving culture - the group is undertaking projects primarily focused on educating the public, such as distributing traffic law quizzes and conducting observational surveys. They also have worked with Madison police to put a pedestrian safety video on the public access TV channel and have used the video to train Madison and other area police officers, Madison Gas & Electric drivers and students from Four Lakes Driving School. Other projects focus on engineering solutions, such as adding extra signs and flags for pedestrians to carry at target intersections. Those components - education and engineering - along with enforcement are the best ways to change entrenched driving behavior, said Larry Corsi, pedestrian and bicycle safety program coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Overall, Bauer, Vilas, Meiers and Corsi offer the same consensus: Drivers should know that they are indeed required to stop for pedestrians and should pay attention while driving, especially when turning. Meiers notes that excessive speed is rarely cited as the cause of vehicle-pedestrian crashes in Madison. Instead, driver inattentiveness was often key. Despite several initiatives, change is often slow, Corsi said. "We're trying to turn around a culture here," he said "That can take quite a while to straighten out." http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/local/index.php?ntid=118122 Mike Neuman _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
