Urban Trail Enforcement 1

OPD along with Best Foot Forward (Website | Facebook) setup in Ivanhoe Village to enforce pedestrian traffic laws.

The enforcement took place this morning on Virginia Drive at the Orlando Urban Trail [GMap].

The enforcement consisted of a plain clothed OPD Sergeant pushing the button for the pedestrian crossing sign to flash and then approaching to cross the street.

While most of the vehicles stopped, some did not.

Those that did not were pulled over by an OPD officer who was further down the road.

The driver was then issues a warning or a $164 ticket and three points on their license. According to state law, all drivers must yield to a pedestrian if they are in a marked cross walk even if cross walk traffic signals are not present.

This crossing happens to be one of the most noticeable in the area from an engineering standpoint. There are flashing lights on both sides of the street, a large median for the trail, a sign in the median telling drivers to yield for pedestrians, and a cross walk.

Sergeant Robert Bear with OPD was the officer attempting to cross the trail as cars drove by.

“We’re number one in the nation for pedestrians getting hit so were out here to make citizens safe and make sure everyone obeys the traffic laws,” he told Bungalower. “We’re trying to lose that number one ranking and doing what we can to educate drivers and enforce the state statutes,” he added

You can see in the video three vehicles fly by Baer as he attempts to cross the street at the marked trail. Baer said he was surprised by how egregious some of the violations were. “Some of them I was two feet from the car and one even sped up as I continued to cross the street,” he said.

We even witnessed one white SUV honk at the officer for trying to cross the street. He received a ticket.

All of the walkers and bikers on the trail and in the area while we were there were thrilled that OPD was out enforcing the law and most stopped to thank them.

Best Foot Forward, Orlando Police and Orange County Sheriff’s Office organized half a dozen pedestrian enforcements this week.

“Whether we are here or not you still need to yield to the walkers. You either obey the law or you don’t. There’s no middle ground here,” Bear said.

For the hour we were there, the OPD officers pulled over nine vehicles. Four of them got tickets and five got warnings.

Here’s a video of some of the cars not stopping for the OPD Sergeant:

And some photos of the enforcement:

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19 Comments

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  1. That crossing could really use some better street lights. You can’t see anyone standing at the side of the road at night.

    If we had the funds to put flashing lights on that crossing, why didn’t we place a traffic light there so cars will actually stop.

  2. A little too late….a couple f years ago I was hit by q car there..spent a month in the hospital. …still no word on the person that hit me !

  3. A good friend of mine was run down on Virginia Ave. He was hit at 70 mph. The driver stopped to think about it and then left him in the road for dead. As someone with that horrifying experience behind me AND a seasoned cyclist who uses the Dinky Line regularly, I am thrilled to see this.

  4. I run through this area a couple times a week and it is the minority of times that I get to the crosswalk that people stop. I often get people try to race through to beat me or honk at me. Even with the flashing lights and signage there, many drivers are not informed of the law and the penalties. Good job OPD!

  5. This problem was brought up in our last neighborhood association meeting & more work needs to be done obviously.

  6. This does my heart good! I would love to see this on Robinson Street by the North side of Lake Eola Park. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to cross there and have had a car accelerate towards me and/or honk. I feel like someone is bound to get hit in that area.

    On a side note…..Love this website!!

  7. Exactly. I will always stop if the lights are flashing, and always slow down upon approaching even when they aren’t, but that isn’t typical for the area. Training people to pay attention to the lights and pedestrians needs to take all factors into consideration. The timing of the lights is likely = (the slowest typical walking speed of pedestrians * length) + margin of error. Somehow that’s resulted in an excessively long time, often resulting in no evidence of pedestrians when the lights are flashing, which tempts impatient and/or selfish drivers into always ignoring the lights.

  8. Scott, I don’t think Jen was suggesting that you ignore it but that it may end up hurting the cause to have it flashing when there is no one crossing. The purpose of the flashing is to warn that there are pedestrians crossing but if there aren’t any you are more likely to ignore it next time (not that you should). But yes if people were more vigilant that would be better…shouldn’t even need the lights 🙂

  9. So what? Do you fly past stop signs at regular vehicular traffic intersections if there are no cars visible in either direction? No, you stop. Why not give pedestrians the same measure of safety?

  10. While it does my heart good to see these drivers with a complete lack of respect for pedestrians and their surroundings get ticketed, if law enforcement really wants Orlando to lose that number 1 spot, they’ll also focus on the number of pedestrians who illegal cross busy roads such as S Orange Blossom Trail. I see this seemingly suicidal behavior multiple times every day and while driver education is most definitely needed, pedestrian education is just as important (as is cyclist education).

  11. This is my ‘hood, and while I’m thrilled with the crosswalk and the enforcement, it does need some tweaking. The lights flash for MUCH longer than needed, which is a bit like crying wolf to the drivers that are in the area often. Most of the time when I pull to a stop at the crossing because of the flashing lights, there are no pedestrians visible in either direction.

  12. Thank you OPD and Bungalower for enforcing the pedestrian traffic walk here and for reporting on this!! We love that this area is becoming more pedestrian friendly and certainly don’t want anyone (especially kids) getting hurt due to drivers who are not conscientious or think they are in too much of a hurry to slow down. It was great seeing you out there this morning!

  13. This is my ‘hood, and while I’m thrilled with the crosswalk and the enforcement, it does need some tweaking. The lights flash for MUCH longer than needed, which is a bit like crying wolf to the drivers that are in the area often. Most of the time when I pull to a stop at the crossing because of the flashing lights, there are no pedestrians visible in either direction.