New York City. Monday, February 16, 2015
Pedestrians With Right of Way Should Always Have Protection of the Law
This article which appeared in edition of our favorite city blog, Streetsblog from New York City, is a gut-wrenching reminder that all cities, all civilized cities, should have a strict, no-exceptions, Right of Way Law. In Europe, this is known as the Street Code (as opposed to the Highway Code that governs traffic on high speed roads).
Jiahuan Xu, 15, had the walk signal when she started across Grand Street in Williamsburg Friday morning. Before she reached the far side of the street, she was struck by a bus driver turning from Union Avenue and “pinned under the left front wheel,” according to the Daily News. After emergency responders rescued Xu, she was taken to Bellevue Hospital and may lose her left leg.
Francisco de Jesus, the MTA bus driver who struck Xu, faces a misdemeanor charge under the city’s recently enacted Right of Way Law, which means police took him to the 90th Precinct for a desk appearance ticket and he faces a $250 fine and up to 30 days in jail if convicted (a sentence with jail time for a first-time offense would be nearly unheard of, however).
The rush to discredit the new law came immediately after the arrest. TWU Local 100 spokesperson JP Patafio said bus drivers should not be held to the standards of the Right of Way Law because the ”law of averages has it we’re going to get into an accident.” The Daily News’Pete Donohue wrote that de Jesus was treated “like a common criminal.” And three City Council members — I. Daneek Miller, Peter Koo, and Donovan Richards — introduced a bill to exempt all bus drivers from the Right of Way Law.
Lost in the scrum was Jiahuan Xu and, in a larger but very real sense, everyone who walks in New York. Our laws are supposed to protect people walking who have the right of way. The justice system should recognize that by imposing consequences on people who injure pedestrians with the walk signal. But before the Right of Way Law, that almost never happened.
Thousands of people are hurt while walking on New York City streets each year, and of the victims who are struck in crosswalks, a majority have the walk signal. Until last year, however, NYPD policy discouraged any consequences for drivers who struck pedestrians with the right of way unless police personally witnessed the collision. The Right of Way Law changed that, enabling law enforcement to file charges based on witness testimony, video footage, and other evidence.
The question raised by the arrest of Francisco de Jesus is not whether he’s a decent person. Good people make mistakes with harmful consequences every day — and in general the law recognizes that carelessness can rise to the level of a crime. And this isn’t a debate about whether bus drivers have a hard job. There’s no doubt that driving a bus in New York is demanding, stressful, and deserving of respect.
The question is: Do our laws protect people walking with the right of way, or not?
If the answer is yes, then application of the law will not only lead to charges and steeper fines for violating pedestrians’ right of way, it will lead to widespread behavior change on the part of drivers, with fewer injuries and fatalities on the streets. TWU 100 President John Samuelsen’s message to MTA bus drivers this weekend is proof that the Right of Way Law matters:
It is imperative that we immediately move to defend our livelihoods and protect ourselves against these attacks. Therefore, we MUST Yield/Stop “when a pedestrian or bicyclist has the right of way.” If there is a pedestrian in the crosswalk, Yield/Stop your bus until they are on the sidewalk. We must exercise extreme caution at intersections and on roadways.
Of course, Samuelsen’s message is also a threat to slow down service and a pledge to fight for bus drivers to be exempt from the Right of Way Law.
But if some bus runs are a minute or two slower because the driver waited for the crosswalk to clear, that’s worth it. And if our laws protect everyone walking with the right of way, we can’t start carving out exceptions.
Instead, we should be asking why charges under the Right of Way Law are so rare. In the four months after the law took effect last August, only 12 charges were filed.
People with the right of way are struck by drivers of every type of vehicle, not just bus operators. The law should be applied consistently to all of them.
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About the author:
Some References:
Earlier W/S articles under this heading
Code de la rue. Arrêté royal. Belgium. 4 avril 2003
Code de la rue – Wikipedia
Article: “Street code” (Code de la rue) in France
Code de la rue on Facebook (Québec)
Code de la rue website (Québec)
Livable Streets discussions of Street Code
What is Street Code?
Article: Code de la rue – Belgium (Use Translate here as needed)
Article:Code de la rue – France
Article: “Street code” (Code de la rue) in France
Extracts from ” Code de la rue” – Belgium
In Belgium, we call street code (Straatcode in Dutch) Royal Decree of 4 April 2003 amending the Royal Decree of 1 December 1975 laying down general rules on police road traffic. This order has significantly changed the rules of the road (highway), considered unsuitable for urban traffic.
The main elements of the street code are:
* The full weight of responsibility impinges on the stronger vis-à-vis the weaker. Thus, a truck must adapt its speed and keep a safe distance when approaching a car, the car when it approaches a bike and the cyclist before an approaching pedestrian.
* Pedestrians have 100% priority at intersections.
* Bicycles are permitted to travel in both directions on a (designated) one way street.
* Skaters and people on push scooters must give way to pedestrians.
The Belgian example has been followed almost to the letter in France, starting with a study in 2006, and implementation in steps through this date.
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Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 France
Bio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)
WORLD STREETS __ A New Mobility Action Plan for 2022 
Apt here in Lithuania where drivers have scant regard / no regard for pedestrians – especially at designated crossings / pelican-pedestrian crossings.
We have been looking at how cities measure the number of pedestrians in their modal split, and quite often its a finger in the air approach.
And if the modal split shows a 40% walk mode, ask where the responsibility lies for pedestrian route improvements! Its a haphazard approach, often not a formal part of any planning strategy at all. Pedestrian routes being ‘managed’ and ‘developed’ only when they are broken.
This article raises some very valid points and should reopen the debate on cities and pedestrians.
Jim. Would it be possible to have a dozen snap shots of people in difficulty in making their way across the street? Including at designated cross walk. It would help if everyone involved, and interested, could have a clear mental picture of how this is (not) working.
Also if you go to World Streets today, we have created a new section which is called Battlegrounds, places in which the new approaches are making their way (and not!). As it stands Malta looks from the outside like a prime candidate for Worst Practices. But perhaps if we give you higher relief in this little “United Nations of New Mobility”, it could serve the cause and the people of Malta.
What do you think?