PhotoDude.com

Fri. May 02, 2003

Punishing the Victims

Punishing the Victims – This is a small story. But it’s in my ’hood, and is indicative of how local governments often address a problem … by making it worse.

From the AJC, “$90 tickets await DeKalb jaywalkers”: “The suspect’s eyes widened when he saw the police car approach with its flashing lights. Mohammed Rahman’s offense: jaywalking.”

“Rahman was among several dozen people cited for jaywalking Tuesday on busy Buford Highway as DeKalb County police mounted a special operation to reduce pedestrian fatalities.”

“Last year, 16 people were killed crossing DeKalb County streets. So police are staking out some of the most dangerous roads in the county to catch jaywalkers and drivers who don’t stop at crosswalks for pedestrians. The county recently got a state grant to pay police officers overtime to do pedestrian safety patrols.”

“The police are handing out tickets and lectures. On Tuesday, at least eight DeKalb officers fanned out searching for jaywalkers along Buford Highway, long considered one of DeKalb’s most dangerous roadways.”

For pedestrians, it certainly is. There’s three lanes of traffic each direction, plus the center “suicide lane.” This is where pedestrians often get hit, as they pause after crossing three lanes, and some vehicle wanting to turn hits them. [Later: One quick errand run brought me this photo-illustration. And this isn’t even the bad stretch of Buford Highway decribed below, as you can see a stop light in the background. But note the speed limit, the lack of sidewalks, and the fact it is often families trying to cross the street.]

So why don’t they use a crosswalk? I could go out and get hard numbers on this, but since I’ve lived nearby for 8 years, allow me to guesstimate. There is one stretch of this highway that is at least 1 mile long, and maybe 1.3 miles, where there is no traffic signal or crosswalk of any kind. In this mile or so, on both sides of the highway, are a dozen or more apartment complexes, with a total of between 1,000 and 2,000 apartments. These complexes are mostly filled with immigrants. Hispanics, Arabs, Asians, etc., who’ve got a relatively low paying job, and a relatively cheap apartment right on the bus line (and most often, no car).

So we’ve set up a situation where thousands of working people are forced to daily jaywalk to get on or off the bus, or walk a full mile to cross the street legally. The county’s solution: ticket the jaywalkers. “’I’d much rather that person pay $90 than that person’s family ask me why we didn’t do more to make sure he didn’t die,’ said DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones.”

If 16 people were killed crossing DeKalb County streets last year, what that means is it is likely that in the next month, another pedestrian will be killed in this county. And it is certain that at some time, another will be killed on that bad stretch of Buford Highway. At that time, I hope someone will ask Mr. Jones some questions.

Instead of spending money to put officers on the street to give tickets to those who are at risk, why didn’t the county simply put in two or three crosswalks in that stretch, with a simple stop light and pedestrian push button? Each day, traffic comes to a repeated stop on that stretch, all six lanes, as school buses make numerous stops to drop off the hundreds of children who live in those apartment complexes, so you can’t tell me it isn’t feasible to disrupt the flow of traffic with a few well timed signals. If a similar problem existed in, oh, say, the Druid Hills neighborhood (rich Old South area that was the setting for “Driving Miss Daisy”), would the solution be to write tickets … or add pedestrian aids? Why are they choosing to punish people for doing what they will continue to have to do, cross the street to catch the bus to go to work, when what they should be offering is a safe and reasonable alternative to jaywalking.

Until they do that, it will continue, as will the deaths. And in the meantime, the county will get richer, at $90 a pop.