The Police Should Stop Picking On Pedestrians
Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2008
by Jeremy Searle
Searle's World Reports
As long as it operates in isolation, the current Montreal police campaign to enforce the law relating to pedestrians crossing the road seems likely to endanger the walking public and result in needless additional deaths and injuries. Montrealers have long developed the habit of jaywalking simply because motorists are often incompetent or uncaring and choose to ignore the legal crossing rights of pedestrians. When you see pedestrians standing on the road prior to getting their green light they are doing so to stake out their territory because they are worried that the average turning motorist will cut them off given half a chance.
The current pedestrian crackdown sends a very clear message to motorists that they have priority over pedestrians (which, of course, they do not) and that people crossing the road had just better watch out if they want to escape with their skin.
Countless cars cut off pedestrians crossing legally on green lights as they race to make their turns, but the police make no visible effort to stop this practice by enforcing applicable laws. It is easier to pick on the victims, the pedestrians. In Quebec, the law is straightforward. Vehicles must always give way to pedestrians when they are lawfully crossing and failure to do so results in a $100-$200 fine plus two demerit points. Common sense also suggests that motorists should yield to pedestrians even when the pedestrians are in the wrong.
Part of the problem in Montreal is that the authorities are not really interested in pedestrian safety or in designing crosswalks and intersections to get them across the road safely. Those of us who travel to other cities know that the problem has been generally addressed and resolved throughout most of the western world and that elsewhere safe pedestrian crossing is usually the norm. The obstacle to improvements in our city is the tendency of weak-minded politicians to pander to what they see as a car crazy Montreal mentality while, in fact, every motorist is also a pedestrian and most would prefer to be respectful if only they were reminded of the need and the rules.
On the high seas, the rule that "steam gives way to sail" has long been observed and obeyed for the simple reason that it is obvious that the strong must give way to the weak. Pedestrians are extremely vulnerable and it is clear that motorists must always be willing to give way to them rather than risk hitting them. No one ever yet heard of the motorist dying as a result of a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian.
Once abusive motorists (and also cyclists) have been taught responsibility, it will be time to turn our attention to curbing pedestrians and to treat them with the same severity of rule enforcement that must first be applied to other road users.
Until cars, trucks, buses and bicycles have been made to respect the rules of the road, there is little point in attempting to educate and punish their victims. Pedestrians can never cross the road in reasonable and consistent safety unless they can be assured that motorists and cyclists will respect them and yield to them when necessary.
It is time to scrap the current pedestrian awareness campaigns that mostly serve to reassure smug and dangerous motorists and instead get started on strictly enforcing our existing traffic with respect to yielding for pedestrians. If other cities can educate their motorists to respect pedestrians and to allow them the right of way, so can Montreal.
Once we have achieved a situation where cars and other vehicles routinely respect the rules of the road designed to protect pedestrians, it will be time to start working on the pedestrians. Right now, we have our priorities in reverse
Comments: jeremy.searle@sympatico.ca
This Article has been viewed 136 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Claiming that you must fix one side of the equation before working on the other leaves the equation unbalanced. As a driver who has been involved in an auto/pedestrian accident, I was following all the rules of the road while the pedestrian was not, something the officer at the scene reiterated to me several times. Yet in court the young woman's lawyer tried to claim that as a pedestrian, she ALWAYS had the right-of-way. Nice way to try to win her case, but not true, and definitely not the law in our jurisdiction. But this is the way we feel, so who cares about the laws? If police are after the jaywalkers, it's probably because in a clash between automobile and pedestrian, the automobile will likely suffer the lesser amount of damage, which can generally be repaired. Not necessarily so for the pedestrian.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.