Crossing the line of absurdity

Occasionally a legislative proposal comes along that makes you wish it had been subjected to a reality check before being allowed through the doors of the State House.

The most recent head-scratcher to make headlines is a bill that would, of all things, repeal the state law requiring motorists to yield the right of way to pedestrians who use marked crosswalks to get to the other side of the street.

Rep. Christopher O’Neil of Saco, the lone sponsor of the measure before the Transportation Committee, argues that the crosswalk law does more harm than good, especially when applied to Maine’s busiest downtown streets. He said his bill was prompted in part by a near-tragic accident he saw several years ago, when a teenager was struck in a crosswalk by a driver who apparently could not see him because of a truck stopped in the adjacent lane.

“Talk to anybody on the street and they’ll tell you they’ve driven down the road and seen people just go, without regard to 4,000 pounds of steel coming along,” said O’Neil, who insists that crosswalks jeopardize the safety of pedestrians by giving them a false sense of security.

Peter Arno, Bangor’s deputy police chief, would be the first to concede that some pedestrians do fail to use proper caution when they enter a crosswalk, as if the right of way provided a force field that protected them from inattentive or aggressive motorists. He would also agree with O’Neil that sometimes even the most responsible drivers can miss marked crosswalks, which might be obscured in winter by snow or salt.

But while the law is by no means a guarantee of pedestrian safety and never will be, Arno said, O’Neil’s suggested alternative offers nothing more than a return to the bad old days when drivers ruled the roads and pedestrians played a game of hit-or-miss while crossing a street.

“More education about the law is certainly preferable to repealing it and taking away the legal right of way for pedestrians,” Arno said. “To say we shouldn’t inconvenience drivers doesn’t make sense. What happens then? Do we go back to making it a free-for-all just to cross the street?”

Which was, as Bangor residents might recall, the prevailing atmosphere in the city’s downtown less than 20 years ago. Back then, the streets resembled a rush-hour rodeo that made pedestrians second-class citizens who had no choice but to dodge the hostile snarl of bumpers that stood between them and the opposite curb.

In 1994, the city wisely began enforcing its crosswalk laws again in a campaign that has always emphasized safety education over traffic citation. The learning process has been gradual but effective, as both drivers and pedestrians continue to become accustomed to their shared responsibilities in making the streets safer and more civil for everyone.

“No, the law is not perfect,” Arno said. “But repealing it because it gives pedestrians a false sense of security would be like removing the flashing red lights from school buses in order to train kids to look left and right when they step off.”

Counterproductive as it is, O’Neil’s proposal probably won’t even make it through committee. We should all be grateful for that. But the well-meaning legislator might have strengthened his case had he chosen a more balanced title for his bill. “An Act to Protect Motor Vehicles From Dangerous Pedestrians” seems to leave little doubt about what side of the crosswalk this guy is coming from.