How about fines for pedestrians who cross against traffic signals? Jaywalk? How about fines and penalties for cyclists who run red lights and ride between cars in slow moving or stopped traffic?

I don't question the need to ensure drivers follow the law, but I do question the focus that they be the only ones to face penalties for breaking the law.

True, pedestrians must obey the laws as well. However, pedestrians aren't the ones driving 2000 pound hunks of metal. If a pedestrian jaywalks, a car driver is unlikely to to face serious injury if the car strikes the pedestrian. I think you'd agree that the reverse is usually not true (i.e. should a car fail to yield and strike a pedestrian).

MPD would actually write traffic tickets? Now THERE is an idea!

Remember that a pedestrian can also jaywalk in front a motorcycle or scooter, in that case, the pedestrian would be the less injured party. It's not just cars on the road.

DL:

But isn't that even a stronger argument for penalizing pedestrians who jaywalk? It's easier to see a 2,000 pound vehicle on the road than it is for a driver to see a person run into the street unexpectedly. You can't just stop a vehicle instantly. No doubt that higher fees should apply to drivers who do not yield to legal pedestrians, but so should higher fines be applied to those who disregard pedestrian laws and illegally cross a street filled with cars.

My commute has me coming in and out of DC via New York and Florida/U St. Almost everyday there is some drunk idiot or mindless kid walking out to cross Georgia Ave/Florida Ave with a DON'T CROSS sign, just because traffic is slowed for the pedestrians crossing on their GREEN. This is highly unfair to target only DRIVERS. What this city needs is to make PEDESTRIANS learn to share the road/crosswalks, etc as well. Too many idoits in this town don't know how to cross streets. I thought that was something taught by parents when you are young. But then again I am in a city where there are people who expect someone else to hand everything to them. They can't think for themselves because they are too drunk, high, or stupid.

I do think it should go both ways. Jaywalkers are dangerous. I watch in amazement at times as they dart in front of trucks, busses, cars and scooters. Call me old fashioned, but I cross with the walk sign. A few extra seconds to wait isn't going to throw my day off.

It's great that they're raising the fines and all that, but really, what good is it when there's never anyone around to enforce these rules? Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I was crossing legally at 7th and Indiana, NW (near the Archives Metro) and got honked at or nearly hit by folks running the red light, I'd be able to quit my day job.

You can make laws and fines until you're blue in the face, but until someone enforces them, they're useless.

Anything that will stick it to the cabbies is fine with me. Somebody's got to tell these guys that they don't own the roads.

DC Council - DO IT!! - The City needs laws to protect the Pedestrians who do follow the rules to cross streets in marked Crosswalks. Drivers down my Capitol Hill Street (Ward 6 / MPD PSA 107) have complete disregard for Pedestrians. Let these Disrepectful Drivers pay for their inept driving habits.

If they want to do this, then they need to change the timing on certain traffic lights (14th & U, for example) or else nobody will ever be able to turn right.

i doubt this would ever be enforced by the police. regardless, it seems a bit draconian.

@Too Funny

I agree, this legislation is laughable if it receives he same level of enforcement as the cell phone ban.

It would be great if the Post could cover this story from the law enforcement angle.

I guess they focus on drivers because they can always thake the car if they need some money. But every time I drive downtown, I have to stop for people walking across the intersection against the light. They don't even have to read - the red hand should mean something to them. But it does not.

Enforce all of the laws.

What happened to the notion that police have a responsibility to control busy intersections? Apart from the trainees at 14th and K, I never see officers controlling an intersection to eliminate chaos.
And I have no confidence now in the metro police fairly enforcing the rules at the intersections where enforcement is needed. At the end of the month, one officer likes to camp out on 19th Street below Dupont Circle well after rush hour and write tickets to the isolated vehicles that he sees as stopping too close to the stop line when there are no pedestrians even in the cross walk. I've never seen an officer writing tickets at crowded intersections.

Increase fine values are meaningless without someone writing the tickets in the first place. Here is the weak link in many a plan for improving traffic flow for cars, bikes and pedestrians.

I commute up 11th street. Half the time its hard to tell the peds crossing from the ones just hanging out. Often I slow down for someone standing in the cross walk, only they don't cross the street they continue to chat on their cell phone. I'd don't know is "legally crossing" and what is hanging out. The change is unlikely to make much difference since the near zero risk of getting a ticket has little effect. Heck if the cops just regularly stopped both the bad drivers or bad crossers and spent 15 minutes writing a $5 ticket the time effect would change behavior.

I'm fully in favor of the fines, and also in favor of pedestrians and byciclists, as well as drivers (having been all three to varying degrees while loving in D.C.) being held accountable for street conduct. Nobody really wants to run anyone over...

Benjamin

I'm also fully in favor of proofreading...I meant "bicyclists," and "living in DC..."

The police in DC are not going to enforce this. Our council lives in some weird dream land where they think just because they pass laws the cops will enforce them. It's hilarious.

The cops ARE NOT going to issue traffic citations to the point where it will make a difference. They don't consider it their jobs and the sooner the council realizes this the sooner they can figure out other solutions.

Why can't the thousands of parking enforcement ticket writers start ticketing for failing to stop at stop signs running red lights, blocking crosswalk or intersections...seems like it would do more for public safety than ticketing parked cars

I can't count the number of times I've been nearly run over or cursed at while crossing in designated crosswalks. I often walk to and from work near downtown and Capital Hill. In areas off major streets adjacent to pedestrian areas such as schools and metro stops, all intersections need stop signs. Sorry, drivers, if it slows traffic a bit, but there are LOTS of pedestrians, these areas aren't like the freeways you just exited.

Streets are for cars. There are far more jaywalkers than peds hit by cars. Fine them $250.00 and they'll cross at cross walks like they should.

When I first moved here in 1985, DC had jaywalking laws/tickets. It is absolutely ridiculous to have fines for drivers, even though they are driving 2000 lbs of metal, and not hold the pedestrian accountable. People walk out in front of you when they have a do not walk sign in front of their eyes. They talk and text while crossing when they don't have the signal. They mosey along when they are in violation as if they're taking a Sunday afternoon stroll.
Responsbility is a two way street.

I want some speed bumps too. There are a bunch of motorcycles from Maryland that blast down my residential street in SE at 7:00am going at least 50 m.p.h. I want one of those speed cameras on my block. Sad that I need one. Maryland drivers truly are the devil incarnate.

"Signs would be posted at the District's borders and elsewhere warning drivers of the higher fines."

I'm skeptical of this. DC has never posted signs regarding the handsfree cell phone law (unlike New York State, for example, which always has a sign advising of their law on this topic). While I think anyone with half a brain should know not to use a hand-held cell phone while driving, such laws are still the exception, not the rule. DC also doesn't post signs advising of the photo radar or red-light cameras. While I suppose the old adage "ignorance of the law is no excuse" applies, it seems to me that (1) there's no reason to believe DC will post signs about the pedestrian laws given their history of not posting signs and (2) the cell phone law and the photo enforcement are more unique than laws about respecting crosswalks such that if there is to be a sign at all, the sign should note the less-common law.

With all that said, I agree with the other people who have said that this needs to be a goose-gander situation: If you crack down on drivers, you ought to crack down on jaywalkers too. I've seen so many jaywalkers who walk out in such a way that it seems like their goal is to challenge the drivers, perhaps even to dare someone to hit them.

Arlington, VA, you wrote:

"How about fines and penalties for cyclists who ... ride between cars in slow moving or stopped traffic?"

Lane-splitting? Totally legal in DC.

And FLvet, "Streets are for cars"? Where did you write that from? 1975?

DC wants to get rid of cars fine let them. Watch your tax base dry up too Idiots

Cars are the number one form of transportation

More abusive driver fees? DC needs to get its head out of its orifice and stop being a puerile money-grabber! Start by removing the speed and red-light cameras! Remove the checkpoints! End the occupation! Refuse and resist! Lanier resign now! Yeagh!

"If they want to do this, then they need to change the timing on certain traffic lights (14th & U, for example) or else nobody will ever be able to turn right."

Absolutely true. There are quite a few streets in town that you will simply never be able to turn right onto if you face the possibility of a $250 ticket if a pedestrian is anywhere in the crosswalk.

Quite a few intersections on the Hill and elsewhere have turn signals for 25 seconds or less. And quite a few pedestrians will remain in the crosswalk that entire time.

"If they want to do this, then they need to change the timing on certain traffic lights (14th & U, for example) or else nobody will ever be able to turn right."

Absolutely true. There are quite a few streets in town that you will simply never be able to turn right onto if you face the possibility of a $250 ticket if a pedestrian is anywhere in the crosswalk.

Quite a few intersections on the Hill and elsewhere have turn signals for 25 seconds or less. And quite a few pedestrians will remain in the crosswalk that entire time.

Hey DC - how 'bout actually enforcing your hands-free cell phone law? Everytime I go thru the District, I invariably see at least one person yakking away.

Look at the source of this proposal -- Mary Cheh. She's proposed more draconian, almost laughable ideas than any councilperson. If there's a good idea in principle, she wants to bludgeon everyone into her idea.

No doubt protecting pedestrians is important, but wouldn't better enforcement of things like running red lights and speeding do as much as higher fines for failing to yield to a pedestrian? What it's going to do is increase massively the number of rear-end accidents as a driver jumps on the brakes to stop for a surprise pedestrian and the person behind runs into them.

Targeting just one form of bad driving behavior is not a good solution.

Are individuals who play basketball in the street and refuse to move considered pedestrians, sports heros, fools or roadkill?

From Dr. Gridlock: If a lot of drivers wind up paying $250 fines and losing points, then the measure won't be having its desired effect.

And if it relied on MDP enforcement, it certainly wouldn't work.

Best case scenario from the sponsor's point of view: You'll see traffic control officers -- the ones in the downtown intersections who work for the District Department of Transportation -- pulling cars over and writing some tickets. And you'll see signs that warn about the fine.
That would be enough to raise drivers' consciousness about the DC law that says drivers must stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.

It would be far more meaningful to target moped drivers who appear to have immunity from all traffic laws, including the driving of their "motor vehicle" onto the sidewalk.

These mopeds have small combustion engines, yet do not have license plates because they do not count as cars. Yet they can cause a lot more damage than a bicycle.

How about we make it harder for people to get a license in the first place? It's a privelege, NOT a right, and there are too many people out there that don't have a clue what they're doing/don't pay attention while they drive/think their way of driving is "correct" and get pissed when someone honks/flashes lights at them becuase they changed lanes/turned without signaling/stayed stopped on a green light/failed to yeild/stopped at a yeild sign when there is no traffic/etc etc etc.
Bottom line...learn to drive and DRIVE when your in the car.

Why increase the fine when tickets don't get written in the first place? Isn't this like offering a larger reward for something that won't be found? I suppose because the MPD doesn't do their job, the traffic control officers now have authorization? It's all just as well since I see people running lights and speeding in front of MPD all the time. The MPD doesn't really care to get involved. It's either that, or they can't write. Anyway, let me get this correct; I'm driving down the road, a pedestrian darts out in a legal crosswalk, I hit this person and now have 6 points and a $500 fine. Yes, this makes total sense. And to think some uneducated control officer now controls my driving privilege. It all makes sense because this is DC at it's best.

Who'd enforce these rules? Doesn't the Council know that the MPD doesn't do traffic? Oh, wait, and they don't do crime prevention, pay attention to anything that might require work or that they might have to get out of their cruisers,...etc. They obviously didn't check with the FOP before passing another rule.

Kudos to the Council on this one.

And in my experience it's the VA and MD drivers who are the drivers most guilty of these violations. And for you VA and MD drivers who complain about DC traffic laws and streets: Ask Congress to let you pay a commuter tax to finance the enforcement and conditions of the streets. After that's happened, then you can complain.

1. If you enforce laws for one then enforce laws for all. Drivers, Pedestrians, Bikers, Cab Drivers, etc. Increase the fine for all.

2. DC needs to improve its signal system and markings all over the city with larger markings and pressure pads for signal changes. It has not been addresses in decades.

3. Pedestrians in DC have a mindset that you will not hit them because they are pedestrials. So they proceed illegally before legally when crossing the street. If traffic officers are going to write tickets, start there. They are all on foot and you can easily make examples of people.

The downtown situation is really serious. After a few tickets are given out without reasonable traffic signal changes, MD and VA residents are going to complain to Congress and this law will be changed the day after. This is what happened for the red-light cam that was Westbound on H st by Union Station at the intersection of N. Capitol St.

to all the people whining here: if you're not doing anything wrong, this won't affect you. Obey the law and you'll be fine. I found this out years ago when I stopped smoking pot. I instantly got a lot less paranoid around cops! Drive carefully and mindfully and you will be fine. Drive like a jerk, and hopefully you will be fined.

For the cyclist who thinks driving between two cars is legal -- try again, that is not what lane splitting means. Lane splitting is two bicycles riding side by side in the same lane, thus not requiring bicycles or motorcycles to travel in a single file line. Going between cars to pass is illegal -- as is spitting on cars, as cyclist are apt to do whenever their careless behavior nearly causes them to get hit and potentially killed.

http://waba.org/areabiking/bikelaws.php

Correction -- a cyclist can pass in the same lane as a car on either the left or the right. Still not what lane splitting means and is a dangerous allowance.

Pedestrians down my VIS (Very Important Street, H Street NE) have complete disregard for DRIVERS. Let these Disrepectful Pedestrians pay for their inept crossing habits.

Having been hit by a driver at 12th and Independence, SW, while in the cross-walk crossing with the light, I say good. $50 and no affect on your insurance is too light a penalty for hitting someone with a car.

Up in Boston jaywalking is a past time. However, any pedestrain knows that they are basically playing chicken with the cars, hence taking their lives into their own hands.
However, cars who don't follow the pedestrain right of way in a crosswalk with the walk signal, deserve a fine. I have already been honked at and given the finger for not running people over.

"Up in Boston jaywalking is a past time. However, any pedestrain knows that they are basically playing chicken with the cars, hence taking their lives into their own hands."

See, this is a good point. Jaywalking, or crossing against the light, when you can do it without encountering or holding up traffic is one thing. Doing it where you're basically challenging the drivers is another. You never see New Yorkers jaywalk in front of oncoming taxis, for example. The jaywalkers in DC seem to have taken the attitude of "I wants to walk, so you has to let me." That's just stupid.

in my neighborhood, the only one's enforcing traffic laws are US Secret Service agents. Never seen a DC cop pull anyone over...USSS does it all the time. As does US Park Police. I am all for harsher fines (for peds and bikes as well as cars), but if you won't enforce it, what good is it going to do? And I'm all for signal changes too. Lets try holding all cars at red lights (no turn on red) and letting the peds have access to all 4 crosswalks at once. Then strictly enforce the walk/don't walk and cars are free to make turns when they have their (shortened) green. At intersections where there are lots of turns, you might increase capacity by giving shorter greens if cars can continuously turn during that time (counterintuitive, I know).

Woodley Park above makes a good point. Enforcement and fines are part of the equation, but DDOT should level the playing field.

The 4-way stoplight in Chevy Chase works great, has minimal impact on traffic and has been 100% effective in keeping pedestrians safe (no incidents in 18 months).

Given this record, DDOT should be encouraged to implement this signal in conjunction with the recently announced Pedestrian Plan.

Instead, the DDOT Director has personally announced the signals conversion to a red-yellow-green light despite the city-wide discussion on pedestrian safety.

Where is the disconnect between the Director and everyone else.

Let the Mayor know: We want these engineering solutions to work hand-in-hand with enforcement and increased penalties for infractions.

If lane splitting doesn't mean "passing on the left or the right, in the same lane or another" then what does it mean? Please site your reference to why it is dangerous.

From wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_splitting

This should also apply to cyclists, but it wouldn't make much of a difference since the cops would have to get out of the donut shops and do their actual jobs.

Does nobody else find the "Committee on Pubic Works" amusing?