If you get caught jaywalking in Edmonton a Peace Officer will write you a note to either show up in court or voluntarily pay a fine of $250. Yes, $250! You can speed through an intersection 2-3 times or drive 40 km over the speed limit for the same amount of money. Or you can buy 3 monthly bus passes. Outraged, I emailed my city councillor. His staff found out that the fine was approved after “a scan of fines across the country for similar offences was undertaken, with a range of $60 to $300 in various municipalities for jaywalking” and after 4 jaywalkers had been killed in 2007 on Edmonton's streets. Nobody told me how many had been killed on cross walks. Anyway, I found several cities charging $30-80 but none anywhere close to $300. What annoyed me more is that “the fine for motorists failing to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk is approximately $550”. Really?! I could point out at least one driver every day. So why does the city not crack down on drivers? Because it's the police's job?! It would certainly increase the safety of pedestrians and make this place a bit more liveable. But clearly these drivers are hard to stop.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against jaywalking laws or fines as long as they are reasonable. And when it’s statistically proven that 89% of the drivers in Alberta are distracted while driving I don’t think the few brave pedestrians on Edmonton's streets should get the tickets. Finally, just these days the Alberta government has introduced a law against distracted driving - we’ll see if it gets reinforced.
By the way, pedestrians do not jaywalk because they are suicidal; obviously pedestrians lose out against vehicles. Dave for example tried to catch his bus which only runs every 15 minutes. And of course he made sure there was not a car coming.
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