LAPD Hits Peds Where it Hurts

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Namely, in their pocketbooks.

As reported in this story from the LA Times, pedestrians who jaywalk in downtown LA will pay a nearly $200 fine for their offense. The hefty fines, along with a "zero tolerance" policy for pedestrians crossing the street outside of crosswalks, is intended to reduce crashes and lower crimes rates over the holiday season. Because, as LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon explains, "Jaywalking is often done by thieves, purse snatchers and robbery suspects to target their victims."

If only we could just keep everyone inside their cars, where they would be safe from such villainy.

Of course, if you take a look at the LAPD website you'll see that, mysteriously, the top five traffic violations causing causing collisions have nothing to do with pedestrians. For the record, they are:

• Following too close
• Running a red light
• Driving under the influence
• Left turn violations
• Speeding

It seems to me that if the City of LA was really interested in improving safety over the holidays, it would turn downtown into a pedestrian-only zone and get rid of the real safety problem: cars.