The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

In the interest of making Tulsa more pedestrian friendly, Tulsa PD should employ one of these crosswalk stings. It's easier money than giving out speeding tickets. As it is now, cars completely disregard crosswalks right in front of police officers, who do nothing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACEmyS_EDPI[/youtube]

Sorry, couldn't help myself.  What's the penalty for walking barefoot through a cross walk?

(http://www.yellowstonemotorhed.com/catalog/images/Beatles_AbbyRoad.jpg)

At least the television station doing the report was balanced enough to show how that stunt almost caused at least one wreck.
Wonder who would have been sued?

Stunt? The cop was walking across the street, something that should be safe for pedestrians to do at a crosswalk.

That car was in the far lane of a three- or four-lane roadway. If the driver were aware of his surroundings, he would've seen the pedestrian as he started to cross the street. Maybe that bus screened his vision, but regardless, you don't go through an urban area with a busy crosswalk at full speed when you can't even see if any pedestrians are present.

A few blisters and huge album sales.

Good gig if you can get it.  Too bad none of those lads went anywhere in the music world.  Last I heard that barefoot fellow was having to play podunk places like Tulsa, Ok. ;)

99% of the time if you rear end some one it's your fault.

To play devil's advocate:  the police officer was technically causing a situation and then issuing tickets when people failed to properly react to that situation.  Had the officer not predicted their faulty response and initiated the infraction, none would have occurred.   Additionally, he intentionally hindered lawful traffic in his effort to find person who would not lawfully observe a crosswalk.

/don't murder me, just playing devil's advocate.

However, if we went to the crosswalk to the courthouse from 6th St. I bet we could get 5 or 6 cops on camera ignoring pedestrians (in addition to many, many other cars.  Just picking on cops because they frequent that location).   If the crosswalk is at an intersection people understand the rule, otherwise forget it.  Ever walked across Delaware or 11th as a student at TU?  Ha!

I just saw a cursing match between a pedestrian and a driver that nearly came to blows right in front of the courthouse.

I've been flipped off by drivers who think they don't have to stop. I'm talking about people who pull out of the civic center plaza or who are a block and a half away when I enter the crosswalk. We're not talking about stepping off the curb right in front of a car or anything. I've been cursed at by turning drivers who think green means pedestrians get out of the way.

I've had people fail to yield at the crosswalk with cops right there at the intersection doing nothing.

And to reply to the previous point, we wouldn't even need to send cops into the crosswalk to create any situations, just watch the cars ignore their legal requirements to yield to peds that are already there.

I guess someone has to get killed or maimed before we can start enforcing laws.

I walked across that one recently during a TU event. Some guys stepped out when there was a break in traffic, with the nearest cars a block-plus away. The other group of pedestrians said something to the effect of "well if they're just gonna step out in front of traffic, I guess we'll go, too."

Isn't this the point of a crosswalk? If you have to wait until there are no cars anywhere withing five blocks of the crosswalk, it's not really accomplishing anything. I just try and make sure the cars have plenty of time to stop. A block is plenty of time to go from 35 to stop.

Paul is dead?

MUST RESIST COMMENT. . .MUST RESIST. . .

Just for Gaspar.  I couldn't resist

Just make sure you are covered...


(http://www.funkycondom.com/images/Trojan%20ENZ%20Lubricated%20Condoms.jpg)

C'mon! Give it your best shot! Fire Away!

Is Oklahoma one of the states where pedestrians always have the right of way in a crosswalk, or are they required to obey traffic signals here? I once got yelled at by a cop in NYC for crossing against a light despite there not being any traffic for several blocks. When driving, I'm the sort of person who always stops for pedestrians if they've got even one foot off the curb. I notice a lot of other drivers don't do that. I'm on high alert around TU, since a lot of folks can't be bothered to even cross at the implied crosswalks, much less the marked ones.