Police fine 90 jaywalkers during morning commute

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by FireFly

Second, where did you want the contractors to park, fotze? Wouldn't it be better for them to park on site where they have quick and easy access to their tools or would you rather they park a block away so every time they needed something, it's 10 extra minutes to get it?

I don't see why pedestrians should care about any of that. Do the contractors care that they demolished a parkade that removed a hundred of parking stalls from other people? It's a downtown high rise tower that takes years to build and employs hundreds of different people throughout the project. It's not feasible for every contractor to drive his own truck to the site for his convenience. Most of the contractors bring secure bins and leave their tools at the site.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm not too miffed that they gave out tickets. I just would have preferred they did one officer doing prevention if it was becoming a problem instead of multiple officers giving out tickets.

Four police officers wrote fines for two hours Tuesday morning and became so overwhelmed by the growing jaywalking crowd that they couldn’t nab all the offenders.

Sounds like they needed more on the job, which leads me to believe this was a significant issue.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Sounds like they needed more on the job, which leads me to believe this was a significant issue.

Just run a plow up and down that lane of traffic at the speed limit, spray down the road to clean up the blood and guts. Problem solved and Darwin served.

It's not like these are our brightest minds anyhow. They're likely not contributing much to the city or the GDP. And the justice system won't get bogged down with silly ticket appeals and such.

/sarcasm

[WhiteTiger]

The way I look at it is like this. The signs all say closed. There is no sidewalk to safely walk on. To walk there you are walking in the middle of the lane of traffic, disrupting traffic. The public should know better. They shouldn't be walking there, but they obviously are. The public obviously not only don't care, but don't seem to think that they are doing anything wrong. You see 4 cops standing on a corner writing tickets, wouldn't you figure it's time to cross the road and listen to the signs there saying don't walk? So many people saw the cops handing out tickets and STILL BROKE THE LAW that the cops there couldn't keep up with it.

I think that's the main telling point about how serious this was, and how "just giving a warning" wouldn't work. Four cops standing there handing out tickets should have been "warning" enough (since folks are too dense to read the signs, it seems) but it wasn't. I think this is a good step.

Now, if we are talking about if downtown should be crippled by construction, that's a whole different thread.

[Resolute 14]

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm not too miffed that they gave out tickets. I just would have preferred they did one officer doing prevention if it was becoming a problem instead of multiple officers giving out tickets.

I echo WhiteTiger, there's already a sign there saying not to cross, why do you need an officer standing there to say the same thing?

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

There's already a sign there saying not to cross, why do you need an officer standing there to say the same thing?

Because the public have proven time and again that they can't read unless they benefit from it.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

There's already a sign there saying not to cross, why do you need an officer standing there to say the same thing?

Because obviously it wasn't working.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by nik-

Because obviously it wasn't working.

Thus the fines.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by nik-

Because obviously it wasn't working.

The 4 officers aren't there all the time, just at times when they think it was a problem and to give out fines and hopefully solve the problem.

You would have to have 1 officer at the preventing corner ALL THE TIME! And you're not solving the problem. What if the 1 officer is stopping a few people from crossing and 10 people sneak by him?

[Flames89]

Calgary's hatred of jaywalking always confounds me.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Thus the fines.

The thing is I'm not arguing that a fine is not warranted. Just that I'd prefer they did prevention instead of ticketing people.

[topfiverecords]

Perhaps there needs to be a thread about sidewalk closures as a separate issue but Calgary needs to grow up when it comes to construction sites and have stricter rules. In New York, Toronto, London, etc you can't close a pedestrian route. It's the developers responsibility to limit the hoarding to above the sidewalk and create a safe barrier between pedestrians and the site. When the sidewalk must be closed, they are required to pay for the closure of
the parking lane so it can be set up for a pedestrian route.

In Calgary we let developers close the sidewalk and parking lane at will. Pedestrian activity is high enough Downtown/Beltline now that pedestrians should be considered more.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Pedestrian activity is high enough Downtown/Beltline now that pedestrians should be considered more.

Hardly.

Walk around any major city that isn't Calgary and the pedestrian traffic is 4x-5x times greater at nearly all times of day. Calgary's downtown, even during rush hour, is a literal ghost town.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by nik-

The thing is I'm not arguing that a fine is not warranted. Just that I'd prefer they did prevention instead of ticketing people.

hmmm

SIDEWALK CLOSED

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Hardly.

Walk around any major city that isn't Calgary and the pedestrian traffic is 4x-5x times greater at nearly all times of day. Calgary's downtown, even during rush hour, is a literal ghost town.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

hmmm

SIDEWALK CLOSED

Ok. That doesn't really change what I'm getting at though. I do understand that there was signage there. Repeating that there was signs isn't going to make me understand that basic fact any deeper. I'm making the statement that even though there was signage I would have preferred a warning instead of letting people walk the route and then ticket them.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by nik-

The thing is I'm not arguing that a fine is not warranted. Just that I'd prefer they did prevention instead of ticketing people.

Then call your councilor and ask that they propose to council that the city hire nannies to politely wag their fingers at people who ignore numerous signs because they are too effing lazy to take an extra ten seconds to cross the street.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by FireFly

That is for crossing the road, not walking down the road in a lane.

In addition, if motorists quit stopping for jaywalkers, it would be much more dangerous for them. We have a culture in Canada that the second someone steps into the road regardless of where it is, vehicles should stop. As such, yeah, it's fairly safe for jaywalkers here. Travel to Mexico and take the same attitude; you'll wind up in a hospital.

It’s not just about crossing the street but the fact that we’ve separated pedestrians and vehicles into different domains because the two modes “cannot” exist in a single, shared domain. Further, it is not even about drivers having to stop for jaywalkers. Due to the common/learned rules in cities where pedestrians and vehicles successfully share the streets (e.g. London, Paris and NYC) drivers don’t have to stop for jaywalkers because jaywalkers know to not put themselves and drivers in that position.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Then call your councilor and ask that they propose to council that the city hire nannies to politely wag their fingers at people who ignore numerous signs because they are too effing lazy to take an extra ten seconds to cross the street.

I'm sure we're all very impressed by what a hard ass you are.