NC town cracks down, fines jaywalkers who avoid crosswalks
Davidson is cracking down on jaywalkers.
On Sept. 5, police began citing people crossing the busiest streets in town outside of marked crosswalks.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, police had issued the $30 civil citations to five jaywalkers and gave verbal warnings to two others, town spokeswoman Jessica Eggimann told The Charlotte Observer.
Davidson Police Chief Kimber Davidson credited community education and “visible” police presence for the low number of citations.
The town is closer to its Vision Zero goal of no pedestrian, bicyclist and driver deaths and injuries, the chief said in a statement.
The crackdown followed a month of police distributing educational materials and verbally warning jaywalkers. Officers alerted people to a new town ordinance that zeroes in on jaywalking violations in marked pedestrian safety zones.
Banners and sidewalk stickers with a “friendly owl” design alert people to the zones.
“We want everyone to be safe,” Town Manager Jamie Justice said in an Aug. 31 news release announcing the enforcement initiative.
“There is so much activity in these pedestrian safety zones, we ask that everyone use the approved crosswalks to avoid any more pedestrian injuries or fatalities,” Justice said.
Deaths on streets packed with people and cars
The safety zones are the latest initiative in a more than decade-long effort to curb injuries and deaths in the north Mecklenburg town, located near Lake Norman about 22 miles from Charlotte.
Beloved Davidson College professor Robert Whitton died in November 2011, days after he was struck by a sport utility vehicle in a crosswalk on Concord Road. He was on his way home from campus on a rainy night.
After Whitton’s death, the town underwent a safety campaign with more signage and education and billed itself as pedestrian-friendly. Still, residents and town officials pushed the state for more improvements, and got them.
Changes included better-timed crosswalk signals on Main Street and a lowered speed limit on a stretch of Davidson-Concord Road.
In April 2016, well-known Davidson pet sitter Janet McFadden, 49, died when a truck turning from South Street hit her as she walked two dogs in the crosswalk on South Main. One of the dogs also was killed. The driver of the truck was found not guilty of misdemeanor death by vehicle in 2017, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
“She was not in an area where I could see her,” the driver, then 38, told the Observer. “I never saw her.”
[RELATED: Pet sitter struck and killed crossing South Main in downtown Davidson]
Two years ago, a Davidson resident was killed while crossing Main Street during daylight hours, 18 feet north of a crosswalk, according to a Sept. 1 email that Davidson College sent to faculty, staff and students alerting them to the enforcement initiative.
“What is far more important than the threat of a financial penalty is your safety and well-being,” Chief Julian Coaxum of the Davidson College Police Department, said in the email. “That is paramount to us, and, we hope, to you.”
College spokesman Jay Pfeifer provided a copy of the email to the Observer on Friday.
Friendly town where drivers wave
In his email, Coaxum described Davidson as “a small, friendly town with low speed limits and drivers who wave.”
That might tempt people “to sprint across the street at the most convenient point,” Coaxum said. “Please don’t.”
Use the designated crosswalks and “be equally vigilant and cautious of pedestrians” when driving, he urged.
No secret: Police will be in these areas
Police are concentrating their crackdown initially on two areas with the most cars and walkers, according to the town.
The area is Main Street from Griffith Street to Eugenia Street, near Carrburritos Taqueria, which is in the 400 block of South Main Street.
The other area is Jetton Street from the Milkbread restaurant in the 600 block to the Harris Teeter in the 400 block of Peninsula Drive.
The ordinance also designates stretches of Griffith Street and Concord Road as safety zones.
Citations are issued for improper crossing of roadway in pedestrian safety zone. Officers issue the citations at their discretion, according to the new Town Ordinance Sec. 70-46.
In an email Friday, Justice said he hopes the crackdown “will continue to encourage a positive change in human behavior” and eliminate deaths and serious injuries.
“Davidson is designed as a walkable community where pedestrian safety is of the utmost importance and a part of our core values,” Justice said. “We want residents and visitors alike to feel safe on our roads and sidewalks.
“I feel confident that our community will lead by example and choose to properly use the crosswalks provided for their safety,” he said.
One state eased up on jaywalkers
Jaywalking is illegal most everywhere in the U.S., but laws vary by state, according to Traffic Safety Store.com.
Some states cite jaywalkers only “if the pedestrian is causing a traffic hazard,” according to the site. Florida looks the other way if you’re outside a crosswalk, but oncoming vehicles have the right of way and you must yield to them, according to the site.
North Carolina law also requires a pedestrian to yield to traffic if the person is outside of a marked crosswalk or in an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. Violators faces a $196 fine plus court costs.
On the flip side, California’s Freedom to Walk Act legalized jaywalking in February, Pacific Coast Business Times reported.
Officers in the Golden State can no longer “stop or fine people” for jaywalking, unless a “reasonably careful person” realizes a chance of a collision is imminent, according to the report.