Not long ago there was a rule passed that you could not jay walk, tickets would be given out. Luckily I got across the road once with the real excuse that I needed to catch a bus. I wanted to say, aren’t there bigger needs like breaking a drug ring or controlling the spread of arms? But then the fever of giving out tickets seems to have subsided and is the city in dire need of funds again?

What is it with this place where there was some initiative taken a few years ago where jay walkers were given tickets and there is another initiative today? To me it means there is a dire lack of following through on the first effort.

And what about the police car that decided to cut me off which crossing a driveway. He placed himself halfway along the sidewalk of the path and didn’t even bother to pull back so that this pedestrian then passed on the road. Is that included in the new ruling? Then there used to be the white striped crosswalks that motorists aim for and woe to the pedestrian if he tries to manage that first.

Come on urban controllers, you are no more interested in setting an example about proper crossings than you are about clearing up the potholes or stopping hydrant spills that issue for weeks so that we can complain of water shortages later. Check your notes that pedestrians are still your taxpayers and that it is their business to look left and right when crossing without your official edicts on how that should be managed. If they want to get hit by a driver who calls the asphalt his own property as opposing to standing on the curb edge with no motorist on the horizon, it is up to them.

Driver tests should be made more stringent about what crosswalks should really be and lessons can be taken from motorists that come to a halt when reaching crosswalk intersections in London. I would re-educate the lazy motorist, put him back into a practical road test setting and see if he passes it or not. Then I would enforce street crossing penalties if no one else were to blame.

All in all the raking in of fines is more about filling city coffers than it is about who is in the wrong.