I went back out a few weeks ago with my cameras rolling to see how many cars, if any, would yield as state law requires. The results weren't good. In about 10 minutes of crossing, 227 cars failed to yield while I was in the marked crosswalk. 4 yielded, but one of those was basically forced to either yield or hit me.
I read this today,
http://www.wisconsinbikefed.org/2015/10/22/police-stop-64-drivers-for-failing-to-yield-to-pedestrians/
and decided to try again.
The results were about the same.
In about 10 minutes 202 vehicles failed to yield and only 3 yielded with two of those basically being forced to yield.
Among the vehicles who failed to yield were a Milwaukee County Transit bus, and many marked commercial trucks including a FedEx truck. Many vehicles actually had to change lanes to avoid hitting me as I started to cross in the hopes that cars in the middle lane would yield to a pedestrian actually in the roadway, I was generally wrong.
This video is from today. I had to speed it up to make it short enough to upload on blogger, but you get the idea.
I've decided to try contacting the local police again. I'll let you know what if anything they say.
2 comments:
Ugh, imagine being someone slower and/or less visible (shorter) to cars like a child or a person using a wheelchair and facing that horror!
There's a crossing almost exactly like this a block from my house. This summer they installed flashing yellow lights that you can activate with the press of a button. I did the exact same experiment (although not as long) with the flashing lights.
Exact same results, even with large signs and flashing yellow lights.
It's a shame.
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