June 17, 2003

A Very, Very Pedestrian Law

It should be said up front that Jack Bogdanski got to this nearly two week ago now. But there's an Associated Press piece tonight on a recent bill which passed through the Oregon Legislature:

The new law says that drivers crossing intersections without signals must stop and remain stopped until pedestrians crossing the street clear the driver's lane and the adjacent lane.

That means no more rolling pauses followed by flooring the gas pedal the instant a walker clears the fender; no more ambiguous yield-for-pedestrian laws.

Apparently, three attempts to pass this law have been made over the past decade. This time around (for whatever reason), there were no votes against it in the Senate, and only three against it in the House.

Strangely, this AP article claims that the bill is "expected to be signed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski this week," whereas Bogdanski on June 5 quoted a newsletter from Rep. Greg Macpherson (who "carried" the bill on the House side; Sen. Ginny Burdick did so in the Senate) as saying the Governor would vote on it the following week.

And, indeed, according to the bill's status listing (go here and search for Senate Bill 315), the Governor apparently signed it on June 10. So I have no idea from where this AP story pulled its information.

The new law doesn't go into effect until January 2004 -- giving the legions of spectacularly inept and inconsiderate drivers in Portland plenty of further opportunities to almost run me over.

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