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Even with police publicizing stepped-up traffic patrols on Wednesday (March 20), at least 200 drivers got tickets in Menlo Park and Redwood City.
“Our overall objective is to increase awareness, and part of that is publicizing (the patrols),” said Sgt. Jay Kiely of the Burlingame Police Department, which participated in the multi-agency effort. “We don’t want it to come as a shock. Educating is one of the main ways to minimize collisions. For some, their education comes in the form of a ticket.”
Seventy-one citations were handed out for failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Sixty went to distracted drivers, such as those talking on cellphones while driving, and the remainder were given for running stop signs, not wearing seat belts, and other violations, according to Sgt. Kiely.
Based on collision statistics and other data such as the amount of pedestrian traffic or unregulated intersections, the officers selected downtown Menlo Park, the El Camino Real corridor and Woodside Road in Redwood City for increased patrol on Wednesday.
San Mateo County law enforcement agencies donated officers to conduct monthly traffic saturation deployments through August. The fourth effort will be held in April in Daly City and Millbrae. Sgt. Kiely said agencies are hoping to win a grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety to fund the program in the future.
Using your cell phone when driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving. Penalties need to be the same for people to take this seriously. Tow the cars of all offenders and confiscate it for repeat offenders. That is in addition to jail time.
I am sure this “push to educate” has nothing to do with raising as much money as possible to add to the dwindling city coffers. Right?
As one who walks to work in Downtown MP and usually feel like I’m taking my life in my hands by daring to cross the street, and after witnessing a Prius roll through a stop sign yesterday and almost crush a little girl who fell off her bicycle at a crosswalk on Santa Cruz Ave, I don’t care if the City is trying to fill their coffers. If that were the main motivation for this enforcement, the City could station an officer downtown and write tickets all day. Sadly, I never see police downtown regularly enforcing distracted driver laws.
These patrols should not be announced beforehand. Even better, there should be enforcement ALL THE TIME. And if it adds to dwindling cities and counties coffers: more power to them.
Why don’t they do this every day? Is it too expensive?
I wish the police would patrol West Menlo, specifically Altschul Ave between 2:45 and 3:15. They could make a mint ticketing the wrong-way cyclists, street strollers, illegal parkers, and drivers who fail to stop for stop signs (or pedestrians). In fact, they’d probably beat the 200-ticket mark in a couple of hours.
It’s good to know you can drive like an idiot most of the time since the cops around here have more important things to do?
I thought the primary job of municipal police on patrol was traffic enforcement?
Or maybe that cuts into a donut breaks too much.
Would eating a donut while driving be considered distracted driving? Unless of course you offer one to the officer who pulls you over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2jyS3xvxG0
Set up a DUI check point outside the Circus club or after a Stanford Game.
Fred:
why do you think so many Atherton residents cling so vehemently to maintaining their own police department? They can be assured there won’t be any DUI check points in their town.
People in this area are just terrible drivers.
The thing I notice most that I never used to see is that people
drift in their lanes all over the place. Over and over again I have
to tap on my horn at people who wander over into my lane.
The other thing is how people merging onto the freeway will
go as far up the righthand side of the merge lane passing
drivers on the right to try to pull in ahead of them.
Then there are the people who have to pull in front of me
to make their offramp exist, and hit the brake to slow down
to take the offramp when they would much easier have just
pulled in behind me and exited.
Finally, the thing that really bothers me is in heavy traffic
when time is critical how people do not pay attention to the
green light and take so long to hit their accelerators and get
moving when the light turns green. When someone does
this they can literally be slowing down tens of people.
Since I drink bottled water, I have to wonder if there is something
in the water or what, people behave like idiots, when as recently
as 15 years ago there was none of this kind of stuff.
What on Earth is going on? I think Google needs to productize
their driverless car and get it on the market, people do not seem
to be able to handle driving anymore, or very many other social
interactions that have to do with sharing.
We are really blowing it in this country with the me-first screw
everybody else Republican attitude.
Anon–You had my attention until you decided to politicize it at the end. First, since the large majority of the people in this area are Democrats, it is safe to assume that it is Democrats with the attitudes you have so eloquently desrcribed. Second, since the large majority of the people around here seem to drink bottled water, as you do, maybe it is the bottled water and the plastic that is seeping into your body that is causing the problem. God bless Republicans and tap water!
>God bless Republicans and tap water!
Except it’s the republicans that don’t want to protect tap water, by getting rid of Nixon’s Clean Water Act. http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15fri4.html?_r=0
Making your Blessing, somewhat ironic.
Anon, rather than getting mad at the other drivers, why not relax and accept that driving has delays just like any other way of getting around? I think a lot of dangerous driving comes from people getting frustrated that they can’t accept any delay. I advise you to do what people who ride the bus or train,bike or walk already have to do. You have to make a realistic estimate about how long your trip is going to take and plan accordingly.
The speed limit in most of Menlo Park,including every street in my neighborhood, is 25 mph.
I understand that you are in a hurry to get to work, to take your kid to the gym, to shop at Trader Joes. You have a high performance car and it likes to go fast! But if you are behind me, you will not go any faster than 25 mph.I understand you are way more important than me, and your people await you, but so it goes. Flipping me off won’t make me exceed the limit.
Just imagine what kind of delay you’ll experience when you hit a small child or someone in a wheelchair. That could mess up your whole schedule!
Dick Milhous–Lest you missed the gist of my response to Anon, it was an appropriate counter to her (gender assumption based upon the tone of the rant) irrelevant comment. But I’m glad to see that you are a Nixon fan.
I always assume that posters are male. Women aren’t that good with technology, and most are too shy to express their opinions.
From the March 21, 2013 Daily Post;
“According to ABC News, Australian researchers found that children are 12 times more distracting to the driver than talking on a cellphone, while at the wheel.” This also makes children more distracting than texting or applying makeup. This means that if you are going to be busting people for cellphone use, you should also be busting them for having children in the car.
This also suggests to me that cellphone use is not nearly as dangerous as drunk driving. No one is driving the wrong way on the freeway because of talking on the phone or having children in their car.
Gee….silly sexist comments from 2 different angles. Nixon fans?? That was a great joke. Women don’t do technology? Send that newsflash to Sheryl.
If the city of MP really wanted to make our streets safer they’d have sidewalks on Santa Cruz Ave so the school kids wouldn’t be walking and bicycling on the street. Its disgusting and a disgrace.
“According to ABC News, Australian researchers found that children are 12 times more distracting to the driver than talking on a cellphone, while at the wheel.”
Interesting. The people of PA/MP/Atherton complain about new bike lanes near schools, because they want to drive their kids to school, and pilot a car with a distraction more dangerous than a cellphone into an area loaded with young pedestrians.
Radical idea: When you are driving, don’t do anything else.
It really doesn’t matter which distraction is cited as being whatever % dangerous. When you are driving don’t talk on a cell phone, eat, hit the kids, or put on make-up. Don’t do any of these activities alone or together (as I have actually seen).
Just pat attention to the road and drive.
to Neighbor of another community —
What a novel idea that the driver is actually supposed to drive and be responsible. That in many ways runs contrary to other people being responsible for his or her infractions — the kids, dogs in his/her lap, spilling the coffee, dropping the cell phone, etc.
As I watch people in other cars I’m firmly convinced that this law doesn’t apply to them.
[Watch 9-1-1 bloopers if you want to see outrageous excuses when people get pulled over.]
Cell phones and/or texting while driving. I’m driving back from the San Jose airport on 101 yesterday.
There is an idiot going 57 mph in the fast lane, messing up the flow.
As I go by, I look at the idiot — he’s looking down at his phone and texting. Nice.