CHICAGO — So why did Officer Grace Delgado try to cross the road? To remind motorists that they must stop whenever someone steps off the curb into a crosswalk.
In an unusual undercover operation, Delgado posed as a civilian pedestrian on a busy street while fellow officers waited for drivers to barrel past her in violation of a law that requires them yield at crosswalks, even if there is no stop sign.
Chicago this year joined a growing number of big cities and small towns that are sending officers into traffic to make motorists pay more attention to pedestrians.
“People, they don’t care,” said Delgado, whose bright pink baseball hat and orange blouse made her especially tough to miss. “It’s ‘Get out of my way.’ The whole mentality is ‘Get out of my way.’ ”
With Delgado’s help, police stopped 78 vehicles in just two hours and told them the drivers they had violated a law that has been on the books for years. The number of stopped vehicles easily could have been doubled, but officers stopped only drivers who kept moving after Delgado had walked 4 or 5 feet into the road.
Like Chicago, Denver law requires that motorists stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.
When they were pulled over, the motorists in Chicago offered all kinds of explanations: One saw the pedestrian in the crosswalk but hadn’t heard about the law requiring him to stop. Another knew about the law but didn’t see the pedestrian.
Nearly 4,800 pedestrians were killed and 61,000 injured in 2006, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The number of deaths has dropped, but there is concern those numbers could climb again as more vehicles hit the road and the elderly population skyrockets.
“We’re beginning to see a healthy desire of older folks to remain active and go out for their daily walks,” said Doug Hecox, spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.
Some communities already are seeing more walkers because of the slow economy.
“The way gas prices are, people are rediscovering their feet,” said Pam Fischer, highway traffic safety director in New Jersey, which recently launched a “Cops in the Crosswalks” program.
In Essex County, N.J., authorities “tried the educational route for years” without issuing tickets, said Paul Loriquet of the prosecutor’s office. “But until you hit somebody in the wallet, it doesn’t stick.”
In St. Petersburg, Fla., the percentage of motorists who yielded to pedestrians jumped from 2 percent in 2003 to 82 percent in 2007, after police began writing tickets, educating the public and installing flashing beacons. Collisions with pedestrians dropped 17 percent from 2005 to 2006.
Police say undercover pedestrians will focus attention on crosswalk safety the same way that giving tickets for seat-belt violations convinced more people to buckle up in the 1980s.
Said officer Chuck Trendle, who was working with Delgado: “Eventually, people get it.”
