ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor police have issued hundreds of tickets to drivers for not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks in recent weeks, and Adrian Wylie says unfortunately he's among those ticketed.

Before the City Council voted Monday night, Sept. 18, to call for a review of the city's crosswalk ordinance, Wylie publicly shared his experience getting pulled over last week.

He said it was trash and recycling collection day and the road was lined with large blue bins, as well as orange road construction cones, creating a visual obstruction as he drove north on Platt Road.

He said police had a dark-skinned man wearing dark clothes pose as a pedestrian and it was difficult to see him.

"The police also decided on using a crosswalk that had no flashing warning lights, and we all know how valuable these lights are to giving drivers notice that a pedestrian is up ahead and wants to cross," Wylie said, noting he's an Ann Arbor resident and aware of the city's law, which differs from state law by requiring motorists to stop not only for pedestrians in crosswalks, but also those waiting to cross.

"As I was driving north, on the corner before the crosswalk, I noticed a commotion happening on the left side of the road. There were police cars lining Sharon Drive and an officer appeared to be frantically waving at cars heading south," Wylie told council members.

"It was just then, on the opposite side of the road, that I saw the individual that the police chose to act as a pedestrian. He was standing in the three-foot gap between the curb and the sidewalk. I was going the speed limit, 35 mph, so I had a fraction of a second to decide whether I should slam on the brakes or just go through. The car immediately behind me was also doing 35 mph, so I decided to avoid a rear-end collision and proceed through, as did the car following me."

About half a block up, he said, a police officer waved him over. He was busted as part of a targeted enforcement operation.

"He let me know that I had broken the law and gave me a ticket -- a $140 ticket," Wylie said.

Wylie said he appreciates the city's attempt to increase safety for pedestrians, but his experience leaves him with questions about safety and the ethics of how police are enforcing the law.

"This police setup may be a worst-case scenario, but it is an example where attempting to follow the ordinance could result in an accident," he said. "There's also reason to question why the police chose to set up a worst-case scenario. They seemed to take every step possible to prevent drivers from being aware that there was a pedestrian up ahead."

Ann Arbor resident Adrian Wylie speaks out at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting on Sept. 18, 2017, raising concerns about the way police are enforcing the city's crosswalk ordinance.

Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, brought forward the proposal Monday night to move ahead with a review the city's crosswalk law first enacted in 2010 and revised in 2011.

"We need to have this ordinance evaluated by a professional traffic engineer," Eaton said. "We need to take a look at the experience that we've had with our enforcement efforts."

The council voted 9-2 to support Eaton's proposal, with Julie Grand and Kirk Westphal opposed.

Some council members said they support the city's ordinance, but they agree it's still worth reviewing how it's working out.

The council directed City Administrator Howard Lazarus to present the results of the review at or before the council's Dec. 18 meeting.

Specifically, the approved resolution calls for a review of the ordinance by a professional engineer and a review of the applicable definition of a crosswalk, as well as providing the rationale for the recent removal of several curb ramps in the city, which Eaton cited.

Council Member Zachary Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, won support for including a review of pedestrian infrastructure improvements since the adoption of the crosswalk law, including pedestrian-activated flashing signals the city began installing at crosswalks in 2011.

The resolution calls for presenting the information to the city's Transportation Commission for review and policy recommendations, with those recommendations then going to the council's Policy Agenda Committee. The resolution also "refers the task of promoting a uniform set of state laws governing pedestrian and crosswalks for all Michigan communities" to the council's Policy Agenda Committee.

Eaton said the city's targeted enforcement done in two-hour blocks results in so many citations that it should be clear to city officials that motorists in Ann Arbor just aren't aware of what's expected of them when it comes to stopping for pedestrians.

Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting on Sept. 18, 2017.

"I received an email from the former mayor of the city of Novato, California. She was recounting a visit to Ann Arbor where she and a friend from Chicago were attending a meeting at the University of Michigan, and she got caught in one of our enforcement actions," Eaton said. "And she asked me, 'How is it reasonably possible for me to be aware of your unique ordinance when I live in California and I was just visiting?' And I think this is really the fundamental question that we need to ask. How are we doing with communicating our expectations? And are the results of these sampling of enforcement actions demonstrating that we're not doing very well at all?"

Eaton emphasized his resolution doesn't seek to change the ordinance, but rather seeks a discussion and a review of the city's experience with it, and he wants to see more of a push by the city for a uniform crosswalk law throughout Michigan. He said he and Ann Arbor pedestrian safety advocate Kathy Griswold visited Lansing last week and talked to state lawmakers from both parties.

"And there really isn't opposition to the idea that we should have a uniform pedestrian law throughout the state," he said. "And so I hope that we'll work in that direction."

Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, said he still sees value in the city's local crosswalk law.

"I started walking my daughter and my neighbors' kids to school once a week, and sometimes we bike -- my daughter in the pull-behind bicycle trailer, my neighbors' kids on their bikes. And with the kids bicycling, we're using the sidewalks, and when we cross, the kids get off their bikes and they walk across, and that's fine. And there's a refuge island and that engineering makes it a lot safer," he said.

"But in that morning rush, there's not a gap that I can walk my bike and trailer across both lanes of traffic unless traffic stops," Warpehoski said. "I can't even go out onto the refuge island because the back of the trailer would hang into the other lane of traffic. So, every time I take that trip with those kids, I see how important it is that cars stop before we enter the street to let us enter the street."

Grand argued the city's crosswalk law already was reviewed by the city's Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force a couple years ago and the decision was to keep it.

"Our community continues to evolve much more slowly than many of us would like on pedestrian safety," she said, adding she can remember when flashing crosswalk signals known as RRFBs were first introduced and some residents complained about them.

"And now we're getting requests left and right from residents for more RRFBs in their neighborhood," she said. "Education -- it's a process that takes time. Behavior change is difficult. I wish that we could snap our fingers and everyone would stop."

Grand said she crosses at Hill and Tappan on her walk to work every morning and many drivers still don't stop for her. She said the efforts the city has underway now are aimed at changing driver behavior and she doesn't want to see the city take a step backward.