Targeted Enforcement, And Why It’s Time To Have More Of It For Pedestrians

For the last couple of days I have been seeing cyclists in packs standing in front of a Cambridge cop getting a lecture about why they shouldn’t run red lights, some even being issued warnings/tickets.

They usually hide out at the same spots (near the Longfellow bridge, at the corner of prospect and mass ave, various other places), and if you are clever (or just paying attention), you can always see them waiting to catch people who break the law.

A lot of people hate this, but I LOVE it.  I have written ad nauseum about the problem with the road culture here, Boston road users do things that people in other areas simply don’t, including running red lights, running stop signs, j-walking, speeding, not using signals, and in general being huge jerks.  The only thing that people seem to value is their time, so forcing them to pull over and get a lecture, a warning, or a ticket wastes their time, and I think generally makes them less likely to do the bad behavior again.

I have seen plenty of (almost exclusively) Cambridge cops pulling over cars, and cyclists and giving them tickets/warnings.  But there is one user group that always escapes the targeted enforcement, pedestrians.

It’s time for this to change.  Pedestrians need targeted enforcement, the same way cyclists and motorists do.  If you don’t believe me simply go to any street corner and watch them break just about every law that is breakable.  Downtown Boston, near any T-stop, and a million other spots you would talk yourself hoarse giving warnings to J-walkers.  They are a danger to themselves, and others, but they hate being bothered, and maybe just maybe they would knock if off given enough warnings.

I love targeted enforcement, I love it when I see red light runners getting warnings, and tickets being issued, its long overdue to include pedestrians in the group of road users being targeted for enforcement.  In theory this should already be happening (see here), but in practice pedestrians are never targeted, we will never change the road culture of Boston until we educate all user groups equally.

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