Description
I was crossing Orange St. in a marked crosswalk with a "State Law Yield to Pedestrians" sign in the middle of the street. I was pushing my five month old son in his stroller. A man in a blue pickup truck started yelling obscenities then hit the gas and nearly ran us over - I had to run out of the crosswalk to avoid being hit. What good are crosswalks if they're blatantly ignored? Why haven't I ever seen police ticketing at a crosswalk? This is too much. I would happily give the police a description if I thought they were interested.
14 Comments
Eva G. (Guest)
stop the aggressive drivers (Guest)
Tree Hugger 2011 (Registered User)
BB (Registered User)
This sounds really stressful. What do you propose as a resolution?
Tls (Registered User)
NH resident (Guest)
another time, a driver in a minivan did the same talking over the cell phone speeding up while I was in the middle of the cross walk.
what do we expect from the police department? exactly - randomly assign a policeman to write some tickets. furthermore, it is a good revenue for the city.
Tree Hugger 2011 (Registered User)
KD (Guest)
This happens to us on the way to school with our children pretty much every week. Some drivers actually act worse when there is a "Yield to Pedestrians" sign in the road - they act as if the sign were a traffic island and speed up to get through the far lane while you are still in the near lane.
Two weeks ago I was crossing S. Frontage at College, with two children aged 1 and 3, pushing one in a stroller and carrying the other. We were in a marked crosswalk with the pedestrian signal giving us the go-ahead to cross. A driver wanted to turn right on red (despite a "no turn on red" sign), but couldn't, because a bus was in the way, and so stopped in the crosswalk instead, blocking our way. Not only did the driver refuse to back up to let us cross; she actually wound down her window and gave me a little lecture about putting my children's lives in danger. It blew my mind. I took her licence but did not know what to do with it; my sense is that without video nobody would take the complaint seriously.
What to do? I agree that occasional random police enforcement would be a start.
As an aside, can police on construction site duty be expected to keep an eye on traffic enforcement also? My experience in New Haven is that they tend to interpret their duties pretty narrowly.
Joe (Guest)
Wizwaz (Registered User)
NH (Guest)
I also crossed the Orange/Bradley, which is the worst even than Frontage. this morning another car tried to beat me while I was trying to cross. in the last second, I have to give up my way.
the city police at least can do some random monitoring once a while. not sure where all my $10,000 property tax go each year.
This happens to us on the way to school with our children pretty much every week. Some drivers actually act worse when there is a "Yield to Pedestrians" sign in the road - they act as if the sign were a traffic island and speed up to get through the far lane while you are still in the near lane.
Two weeks ago I was crossing S. Frontage at College, with two children aged 1 and 3, pushing one in a stroller and carrying the other. We were in a marked crosswalk with the pedestrian signal giving us the go-ahead to cross. A driver wanted to turn right on red (despite a "no turn on red" sign), but couldn't, because a bus was in the way, and so stopped in the crosswalk instead, blocking our way. Not only did the driver refuse to back up to let us cross; she actually wound down her window and gave me a little lecture about putting my children's lives in danger. It blew my mind. I took her licence but did not know what to do with it; my sense is that without video nobody would take the complaint seriously.
What to do? I agree that occasional random police enforcement would be a start.
As an aside, can police on construction site duty be expected to keep an eye on traffic enforcement also? My experience in New Haven is that they tend to interpret their duties pretty narrowly.
Joe wrote
Policemen by the dozens rather collect overtime pay reading their phone at road construction sites than worrying about the safety at crosswalks. Let's break the stupid and selfish unions ....
Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking (Registered User)
KRP (Guest)
Κλειστό City of New Haven (Verified Official)
Due to the age of this post, it will be closed. NHPD is now monitoring these posts, but they need to be able to distinguish information that is current. If this issue is a continuing problem, please report as a new post in this category to clearly identify it as a current problem. You can reference this post, which will stay archived on the website accessible to NHPD District Managers. Any immediate public safety issue should be called into 9-1-1, however.
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