Photo by brownpau.

The recent post on speeding generated a lot of interesting comments, including this:

I thought DC has a standing law requiring cars to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks? shouldn’t pedestrian advocates start demanding that police enforce that rule to the point where it becomes common knowledge and practice?

The commenter is right. Drivers often do not stop at crosswalks without stop signs or traffic signals, a dangerous disregard of traffic law that carries a $250 fine and three points on the driver’s license. If a pedestrian is struck in a crosswalk, the fine rises to $500 and six points.

George Branyan, DDOT’s Pedestrian Program Coordinator, told me in an email that he has worked over the past four years with MPD to train more than 400 officers on right-of-way laws and enforcement techniques. A new round of trainings will take place in the next three weeks in preparation for the spring’s StreetSmart education and enforcement campaign. Last year’s two-week StreetSmart campaign, funded by DDOT, yielded 1,088 driver violations, of which 161 were for failure to give right-of-way to a pedestrian. View the full table of violations and take a look at training materials used for StreetSmart in 2007 (large PDF).

As almost anyone who walks in the District can tell you, however, the current level of enforcement is not enough. Drivers continue to ignore pedestrians in unsignalized crosswalks on a routine basis. Higher-profile enforcement operations are necessary to remind the driving public that stopping at crosswalks is not optional, and that a hefty fine could be the price for ignoring the law.

For example, take a look below at how Sharon White, Portland’s pedestrian safety chief, works with her city’s police department to enforce crosswalk laws. In addition to enforcing the law, these “crosswalk stings” have caught criminals on the run; Sharon can attest to this firsthand.

Importantly, these types of enforcement actions often gain media attention. San Francisco’s crosswalk stings garnered television coverage and Boston’s stings, which featured a police officer disguised as a mother pushing a baby carriage, were featured in the Boston Herald. With this media coverage, the lines between two of the five “E’s” blur as enforcement becomes education for the general public. MPD and DDOT have done targeted enforcement outside of StreetSmart in the past and use crosswalk stings as an enforcement tool during the annual StreetSmart targeted enforcement periods. Perhaps it’s time to use some media exposure to get the message out once again, before a tragic pedestrian death in the District grabs the attention of the press in 2009.

Following up: Adam Voiland, the DC Bicycle Transportation Examiner, understands that the real culprit behind 14 year-old Ashley Nicole Meyer’s tragic death is SHA’s negligent design of Ritchie Highway, which ignores bicycles and pedestrians. Cheryl Cort reminds us of “Mean Streets” (PDF), an April 2008 report by the Coalition for Smarter Growth that singles out some of the region’s most dangerous roads for cyclists and pedestrians.

Below, a list of crashes in the news recently, to remind us of what we have come to accept as collateral damage on our streets:

See a crash in person or on the news? Have a traffic safety story? Send me a tip at smiller@ggwash.org.