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Transportation for Liveable Communities (TLC) a working group of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) McMaster. PO Box 19 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton ON, Canada, L8S 1C0 905-525-9140 ext. 26026 |
On Thursday, March 15, Jocelyn Bell wrote a front-page article entitled "Police Target Walkers," about the anticipated "crackdown" on jaywalkers to take place in May.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this article was not the statistic given about how many pedestrians have been killed by cars over the last six years (43), but the sheer acceptability of this campaign.
What is being suggested here is that if people are being hit and killed by automobiles, it must be their fault, and pedestrians must be re-educated as to how to coexist peaceably with these masterful showpieces of our society.
This type of victim targeting can be likened to an NRA crackdown on the victims of gunshot wounds, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Fining pedestrians is like fining shop owners in parts of town where they are likely to be robbed for badly selecting a place to set up their business.
This campaign ignores the structural nature of the jaywalking problem. The problem isn't pedestrians or cyclists, or even motorists necessarily, but for the most part, the problem is that Hamilton has been designed for drivers. Those of us who cannot afford or choose not to own cars are held at the mercy of the automobile culture.
Guns are legal. Murder is not. Cars are legal. Hit-and-run is not. What is being ignored here is the chaos into which our city has descended. Drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians do not share the roads, but struggle over them in an endless tug-of-war that is severely imbalanced.
Hamilton's police are trying to address this problem by educating senior citizens on how to "Step out Safely." Perhaps a more effective campaign, one that would have more long-term impact, would be the improvement of driver education. No matter how nimbly a pedestrian may be able to avoid oncoming traffic, the continuing presence of a "defensive driver" culture will work against all those who cross the streets by foot, whether with or against the light. And a tonne of steel will always win over a human being.
As long as the city of Hamilton ignores the overarching problem of a pro-automobile urban design, no real improvement will ever be made to "the jaywalking problem."
Only through the construction of more bike lanes, the adoption of traffic calming techniques, and a greater respect for the pedestrian in matters of street design will this problem begin to diminish.
In short, we must learn to share our streets as true members of a community, rather than support oppressive fines and rules that consistently favour one class over another.
Don't target the walkers: target the system