Walking—in good health

One consequence of higher gasoline prices is that more people are walking or bicycling instead of driving.

That’s something we’ve advocated for years, both to conserve gasoline and improve health. (After all, obesity, even among children, is reaching epidemic proportions.)

So, getting people to be more active is a good thing, right?

Sure. But there’s also a dangerous consequence as a result of the positive one.

More people are put at risk from collisions with automobiles. Pedestrian and bicycle safety has become a growing problem.

That fact must trigger another consequence: Motorists must be better educated about pedestrian safety — and that means educating them via traffic tickets if necessary.

These days, large cities and small towns alike are launching programs to do exactly that.

In Chicago, for example, a female undercover officer (wearing eye-catching orange and pink) posed as a pedestrian by stepping off a curb into a crosswalk. Other officers were posted nearby to stop motorists who failed to yield.

Some drivers insisted to the officers that there was no law requiring them to stop. They were wrong.

Virginia law also requires drivers to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk or at an intersection. If there is no crosswalk or marked intersection, pedestrians may cross by the most direct route, and drivers should yield to them.

Of course, pedestrians are not supposed to step recklessly into the street if it means a driver would have to slam on the brakes, perhaps causing a rear-end collision or other accident.

Nearly 4,800 pedestrians were killed and 61,000 injured in 2006, the most recent statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Children and older people are most at risk.

Annually, pedestrian deaths make up about 11 percent of all highway traffic deaths.

The safety agency wants to see that number reduced.

But is it set to grow?

With more people taking to their feet or to their bikes, the risk is there. A 35 mph collision between two cars is bad enough; a car crashing into a pedestrian at that speed can be fatal.

Our laws — not to mention simple human concern for others — require us to slow down and give pedestrians the right of way. That need is becoming more urgent as more people take to the street on their feet.