Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

APD sting to catch drivers not yielding to peds

APD will use officers (some in plainclothes) to catch motorists who fail to yield to pedestrians.  I'm all for catching bad drivers, but I don't envy the officers who are putting themselves in harm's way.  (Well, I guess officers are always in harm's way by definition, but now even more so.)

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/aus … 50356.html

cycling74

Member

Registered: 2008-09-28

Posts: 61

Re: APD sting to catch drivers not yielding to peds

Well, alright. Off to a good start. Now, where's the public information campaign?

Oh and I do not envy whoever has to try crossing Lamar at St Johns during this "sting". Yikes!

chuckthomas

Member

From: North Austin (Rundberg)

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 80

Re: APD sting to catch drivers not yielding to peds

I really hate all this police state crap.  Can't we just focus on dangerous situations and leave everybody else alone.  A guy running across the frontage road when no cars are coming or someone rolling a stop sign when no other traffic is around should be left alone.  When I was a kid most of the signs were yield signs now they're all stop signs.  This is all about money, not safety. It's harder to issue a ticket at a yield sign than at a stop sign.

jmayson

Member

Registered: 2008-06-28

Posts: 46

Re: APD sting to catch drivers not yielding to peds

Chuck, I really disagree.

It's not about money.  By the time the city has paid the officers, the courts have processed the ticket, etc. there's not much left over.  Back in the 1990's states started doubling the fines in school and construction zones.  The reason was because they needed to prevent people from even going a few mph over the speed limit, but with fine structures it would actually cost the state money to write a ticket for a few over the speed limit (i.e. the costs of enforcing the law and fining the driver was greater than the fine). 

In an ideal world people would do the right thing and we wouldn't need police enforcement.  But time and again we see they do not.  The roads have gotten quite lawless.  I started driving in the mid-1980's and police enforcement was tough.  And it wasn't just because I was a 16 year-old kid, my parents thought so too.  Today up in NW Austin where I live stop signs have more or less become optional.  Time and time again I've sat at Lake Creek Pkwy and US-183 and watched drivers blow though red lights in plain view of police who are usually on their cell phones and playing on their laptops.

I'm personally not too keen on just leaving everyone alone.  If our roads were generally safe then I would agree with you.  But there's obviously a problem out there and I'm tired of the police not enforcing the laws of the state on reckless drivers.

cycling74

Member

Registered: 2008-09-28

Posts: 61

Re: APD sting to catch drivers not yielding to peds

Can't we just focus on dangerous situations and leave everybody else alone.

The irony with that statement is that it is exactly what APD is doing with this sting for a change.