Charlottesville Police issued five to seven citations this week as part of an initiative to curb jaywalking, Charlottesville Police Lt. Ronnie Roberts said.
Police received traffic violation complaints from University areas, particularly University Avenue, Ivy Road and Emmet Street.
“We are taking a proactive approach in hopes of reducing the number of crashes in our community,” Roberts said. “We try to push this idea into the public and media in order to educate the public.”
As part of the initiative, police use volunteers as decoy pedestrians at crosswalks to catch drivers violating traffic laws.
Charlottesville Police issue citations then the Charlottesville General District Court determines the penalties violators face.
Victims of past traffic violations include joggers and an injured, wheelchair-bound pedestrian, Roberts said. No incidents have been reported this year, however.
The initiative, which ends Sunday, is part of Charlottesville Police’s traffic-enforcement plan, which concentrates on different areas of the City each week, Roberts said.
—compiled by Elizabeth Heifetz
While I admire the Charlottesville Police’s dedication to pedestrian safety, I believe they should seriously rethink their pedestrian decoy program, because instead to catching traffic violations, it merely creates them. My father and I were the victims of this decoy game. There was a woman standing at a crosswalk which we were approaching in a car in a C-ville neighborhood. She waited until we got closer, then leaned as if she was about to cross, but didn’t actually take one step. We slowed, but she acted very strange… taking a step back and never leaving the sidewalk, so we went ahead and drove by, only to be pulled over by a hidden police car for not giving her the right of way. The police cannot expect their decoys to put themselves in danger by stepping right in front of cars, obviously, but they shouldn’t pull drivers over for traffic violations that do not occur.
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