Following a bloody incident with an elderly jaywalker this past weekend, the Wall Street Journal reports that the NYPD has significantly increased the amount of tickets it has issued for jaywalking. We all saw this coming.
NYPD officials told the WSJ that 64 jaywalking citations have been issued so far this year, compared to 12 at the same time last year. However, the paper also states that "the mayor and Police Commissioner William Bratton announced a task force to combat jaywalking last week."
A spokesman for the Mayor's Office confirmed that there is no "task force" or targeted effort against jaywalkers, and that the announcement was to outline ways to improve pedestrian safety as part of the administration's "Vision Zero" campaign promise.
The mayor said as much on Monday:
There is no larger policy in terms of jaywalking and ticketing, that is not part of our plan. We need to be sensitive to the fact that we do have a way of life and any of us who've been here know that but we have to educate people to the dangers.
So why have jaywalking tickets skyrocketed in the first three weeks of 2014?
As we pointed out earlier this week, there seems to be a miscommunication between the mayor and his police commissioner. At the Vision Zero press conference, Bratton cited dubious statistics about "pedestrian error" and indicated that enforcement (along with education) would be part of his mandate. The mayor took to the podium immediately afterwards to tamp down those comments and assure the reporters and advocates there that the emphasis would be on issuing information, not summonses.
On West 96th Street and Broadway this weekend, where three pedestrians have been killed by vehicles this year, the NYPD issued twice as many tickets to jaywalkers than to drivers.
Community Board 8 has put together a series of recommendations for the city to act on to improve pedestrian safety on the UWS, which include changing the light patterns and eliminating left turns. Ticketing jaywalkers isn't on the list.
