Cops to ticket pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists on 4 troubled roads

While the headline of this news article should have also mentioned MOTORISTS breaking the law, here’s a decent story on bike/ped safety by the Times Union.

http://jacksonville.com/news/public-safety/2017-04-17/cops-ticket-pedestrians-cyclists-during-traffic-safety-push-4-roads

While the JBC doesn’t condone jaywalking in heavy traffic, we understand the many challenges pedestrians face in this city. Some typical Jacksonville road and cultural problems for both pedestrians and people on bikes:

• Many roads have crosswalks that are too far apart from one another
• Some crosswalk signals do not give ample time to get across wide roads, so the elderly or disabled are forced to run halfway through
• Many roads are very wide with up to 6 lanes to contend with when trying to cross
• Florida motorists generally don’t understand the crosswalk laws and will not stop for pedestrians even if the pedestrians have the right of way
• Florida motorists certainly don’t understand the road-sharing laws with regards to people on bikes
• Being a person who chooses to ride a bike is still, strangely enough, a stigma in Florida
• Jacksonville is severely lacking in appropriate infrastructure for pedestrians, bicycles, buses, and its very limited elevated train, and has no infrastructure at all for commuter trains. It’s still archaic, catering overwhelmingly to cars only. Sadly limited.
• Speeding is an epidemic here
• Jacksonville is still the third most dangerous city in the entire nation for bikes and peds
• And arguably the worst challenge of all — distracted motorists — an absolute plague, nationwide, and just about as deadly

 

 

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