Louisville jaywalkers warned of crackdown

Louisville Metro Police, who have been giving warnings to jaywalkers at targeted intersections in recent months, are about to start issuing citations with fines ranging from $20 to $100.

Police say they are monitoring five of the city's most dangerous intersections to keep pedestrians safe, a year after 18 pedestrians were killed. Eleven have been killed so far this year.

But construction worker Jerry Manns, 34, said he wasn't impressed with the idea.

"This is just ridiculous," he said. "I've never heard of anything like this before."

Rather, police "should concentrate on real problems, like drugs and theft and break-ins."

Since late spring, officers have been writing citations for drivers who fail to properly yield and giving warnings and educational leaflets to jaywalkers at the five busy intersections that data suggest can be troublesome for pedestrians, said Lt. Joe Seelye, Traffic Unit commander.

The "pedestrian decoy operation" is a collaboration with Metro Public Works and is part of a larger grant-funded initiative Look Alive Louisville, which launched earlier this year aiming to keep motorists and pedestrians safe as they navigate city streets.

"We’re going to use common sense here," he said. "We’re truly just trying to keep people safe and educate them."

Officers at two of the intersections — Fourth and Market street and Fourth Street and Broadway — warned pedestrians of the impending change Tuesday morning.

"You have just failed to use due care as a pedestrian," read one side of the police leaflets handed out to those walking and driving who violated state law meant to keep pedestrians safe. "You have just failed to STOP for a pedestrian," read the other.

The officers Tuesday were uniformed, but the full roll-out will include undercover officers who will walk crosswalks to issue citations to those on foot and notify nearby hidden police of vehicles that break the law, said Rolf Eisinger, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator with the Public Works Department.

Lisa Toby, 56, said she thinks the fines could serve as a deterrent to breaking the rules.

"As a mother of two teenage sons, I think it's good to educate people, especially the younger lot, about road safety," she said. "I see a lot of people jaywalking every day and if they're fined they'll think twice about doing such a thing again."

Seelye stressed officers are going to focus on "obvious" infractions, such when drivers run red lights and cut off pedestrians in crosswalks or when pedestrians "clearly aren't using the crosswalk" and use a crosswalk when the orange hand is illuminated.

Seelye said early data suggests the police presence has reduced the number of vehicles that run red lights at the five busy intersections — Bardstown Road and Goldsmith Lane; Preston Highway and Gilmore Lane; Second Street and Broadway; Fourth and Market streets and Fourth Street and Broadway.

The initiative is funded by a $307,000, three-year grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that is helping to fund Look Alive Louisville, which is focusing on education using videos and programming.

Eisinger said many on the road who break pedestrian laws are distracted by technology or simply in a rush. In the months ahead, he said officials will look to see if behavior changes at the five intersections as a measure of success.

“Get you head out of you app and pay attention to your surroundings,” Eisinger said. "These things are pretty elementary, but it could save your life.”

About 13 percent of the 1,100 pedestrians who crossed the intersections at Fourth Street and Broadway and Fourth and Market streets during four hours Tuesday morning did something illegal, Seelye said.

LMPD data suggests that pedestrians are at fault in roughly 30 to 40 percent of pedestrian issues, he said.

"A lot of people blame each other," Seelye said. "There’s ownership on both sides. There’s opportunity to improve on both sides."

Reporter Ali Haider contributed to this story. Reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at (502) 582-4989. Follow him on Twitter at @MattGlo.

STATE LAW

For pedestrians

"Pedestrians shall be subject to traffic and pedestrian-control signals..."

Those who cross "at a point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway."

"Between adjacent intersections within the city limits of every city at which traffic-control signals are in operation, pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk."

Pedestrians should not "suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety" nor "cross a roadway intersection diagonally."

For motorists

With no traffic control signals, "a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian..."

"The operator of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian on a sidewalk."

"...every operator of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian and shall give warning by sounding the horn when necessary..."

When a vehicle is stopped at a crosswalk to allow a pedestrian to cross, "the operator of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass the stopped vehicle."

Source: LMPD