The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

“‘Yield’ means different things to different people, including ‘swerve,’ ‘stop,’ ‘slow down,’ or ‘just miss’,” said Del. Adam Ebbin (D-49th, Alexandria) from the House floor, Monday. He is the chief sponsor of the bill in the house. “This legislation is supported by the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, local law enforcement agencies,…and the Virginia PTA.”

Del. Salvatore Iaquinto (R-84th, Virginia Beach) voted against the measure. He is an attorney and said he has defended pedestrians many times.

“The case law is pretty clear that the pedestrians have a right of way in a crosswalk,” he said in an interview Tuesday, adding that people know what "yield" means. The term is not the problem, there are some who will ignore the current law.
“If you’re in a crosswalk, and you get hit by a car, the person who hit you is at fault," he said.

But without that accident, police find it hard to get a conviction at all, said Pat Carroll, Arlington County's legislative liaison. "It’s very important to our police department" that this law pass, she said in a voice mail.

“In Fairfax [County] at least, and this may be true in Arlington as well, the police say they have trouble getting convictions unless somebody actually hits a pedestrian," she said.

Although the language changing “yield” to “stop” is intended to clarify what drivers are supposed to do, Del. Iaquinto said he thought the bill would confuse some people. Pedestrians must obey lighted pedestrian traffic signals under the law, but what if someone does not? Del. Iaquinto wondered. Is the driver required to stop for that person? And what happens when there are no pedestrian signal lights at an intersection and a pedestrian enters the crosswalk against traffic, who is at fault then? He also said that he feared rear-ender accidents with drivers slamming on brakes to avoid pedestrians.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, I was fifty-fifty” on whether or not to vote yes to the bill, Del. Iaquinto said, but it just was not clear enough language. “I don’t disagree with his [Del. Ebbin’s] motives…[but] I think we’d be back here next year trying to fix [the bill].”

Pedestrian issues took a front seat in Buckingham last summer as county staff met with residents of the neighborhood regarding pedestrian safety, especially at the intersection of N. Glebe and N. Carlin Springs roads. Changes which continue there are part of the North Glebe Road Pedestrian Improvements Project. The project covers that intersection as well as two others.

As well, the intersection of N. Glebe at N. Pershing Drive is part of a different project. One aim of the renovation is to improve pedestrian safety.

N. Thomas Street at various intersections of the neighborhood—most significantly at N. Henderson Road—is a subject of county capital improvements aimed at pedestrian safety. [More on this next week. --ST]

Suzi Smith, a resident of The Carlin apartment on N. Carlin Springs Road, took an active roll in meetings with county staff last summer.

“It makes a huge difference whether it’s stop or yield,” she said in an interview yesterday. She said she’s been in intersections where she could touch the car as it was driving by.

She said that the police could issue more traffic tickets, which might only directly affect a few people, but word would get around. As well, people who received tickets would begin to slow down, and then everyone would have to slow down behind them.

Representtatives from K.W. Barrett Elementary's PTA joined with statewide PTAs for a day with Legislators during the first week of February. Barrett parent Nina Austin had taken the pedestrian issue as a prime concern given that many Arlington parents have been telling the school board that they want their children to walk to school. She has been encouraging parents to contact legislators.

"We can't just make this a northern Virginia issue," she said in an interview on Feb. 5.

That might hit at the crux of the problem. Some form of this bill has come up perennially for at least three years, and county staff and political leaders have said in the past that they just cannot convince downstate Republicans that there is a need for a change in the law.

“I’m from Virginia Beach,” Del. Iaquinto said. “Yeah, I think you’re right. The downstate legislators, they just don’t see these problems" of heavy pedestrian traffic mixing with vehicle traffic. Still it was not enough to convince him to change his vote.

The measure is not dead, however, as the bill that made it through the Senate (it is identical to the House bill), crossed over to the House, where it heads back to the Trasportation Committee, perhaps as early as Thursday.

“This is a priority for Arlington," Ms. Carroll said. She added in an email: "Regardless, we remain committed to pedestrian safety and if the bill does not pass, will continue to work on it."

This is How Crosswalks Are Supposed to Work, Virginia!

Labels: delegates, house of delegates, pedestrian, virginia politics, virginia senate

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:12 AM 0 comments

House Bill 1270, seeks to clarify a law that originally said vehicles had to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, language that legislators have said was too vague to enforce.

Del. Adam Ebbin (D-49th, Arlington/Fairfax County), the chief patron of the bill, said this was the second time in three years that the bill has made it out of the transportation committee, the last time in 2006. It is a bill that county politicians have fought for in the past. Ebbin said he was happy that the measure made it out of the committee, but he did not know what chance it had in the Republican controlled House.

Del. Al Eisenberg (D-47th, Arlington), a patron of the bill, said it was “important” that the bill passed through the transportation committee, which gave him hope that it would pass the House. A vote can always, “slip on the ice,” he said in an interview this morning.

He compared the voting process on some bills in the House as a knit sweater with a loose thread. It all unravels when someone pulls the thread, and delegates might not know where the thread is or who is pulling it.

In this case, he said the thread might just be the problem of who has the right of way. Although the bill states that cars “must stop and remain stopped,” it also states, “No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to stop, nor shall any pedestrian cross an intersection in disregard of traffic control devices.” Del. Ebbins said this was a significant change that clarified the pedestrian’s role, and that it is clear in the legislation that cars cannot enter a crosswalk when a pedestrian is present.

However, these portions of the bill gave Del. Manoli Loupassi (R-68th, Richmond) a reason to vote no. He was one of eight delegates to vote against the bill in the transportation committee; 11 delegates from both parties voted for it.

A former prosecutor and defense attorney who said he has spent a lot of time in traffic court, Del. Loupassi said he believes the bill is unworkable in court because, “there’s a burden of proof that cannot be met.” He said it will not always be clear who had the right of way.

“I just think it’s a situation that’s going to get someone killed,” Del. Loupassi said. He said he thinks the bill could “mature” to his liking but that it would have to be simplified for clarity.

The problem with enforcing the law as it stands is that “yield” could mean to stop the car and wait for the pedestrian, or to allow the pedestrian to go first, but then slide just behind them in the crosswalk, officials have said.

“The police say it’s extremely difficult to enforce the law as it is written,” said Virginia Senator Mary Margaret Whipple, last July.

As early as today, the House of Delegates could vote on the bill. It would modify and amend a number of rules on the books regarding vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The first 11 pages of the 16-page bill define various terms, amending some.

An identical bill is being debated on the Senate floor today, with Arlington Sen. Patricia Ticer (D-30th, Arlington/Alexandria) as the chief sponsor. A vote in the Senate's transportation committee was largely along party lines, nine to six, with Republican John Watkins (10th, Midlothian) joining the Democrats.

In both bills, “Crosswalk,” originally relegated only to intersections with plain markings, is split into “Marked Crosswalks” and “Unmarked Crosswalks.”

The unmarked variety extends through an intersection parallel to one road, and crossing the other road where the sidewalk would meet the intersection, if there is a sidewalk.

Marked crosswalks are not defined solely at intersections, but include “any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctively indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the highway surface.”

The bill also states that pedestrians crossing outside of marked or unmarked crosswalks must yield right of way to vehicles, and that vehicles must always use care around pedestrians.

From HB1270:

Labels: crosswalks, delegates, pedestrian, senate

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 11:36 AM 0 comments