During an extended visit with her mother, Allegra Sedney has discovered what town officials admit is Bel Air's dirty little secret: Drivers generally don't stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.
Disobeying the state laws requiring motorists to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk has reached epidemic proportions, several of them said after Sedney recounted, during Monday's town meeting, some of her recent experiences.
"No one has been stopping and I thought maybe there wasn't a law in Maryland," said Sedney, who lives in Hull, Mass., a seacoast town with a population roughly equal to Bel Air's.
When she found out that there is indeed a crosswalk law, "I was flabbergasted."
Despite being smaller in area, Hull and Bel Air both have a lot of crosswalks and plenty of traffic along their main streets, Sedney said.
There is, however, a big difference. In Hull, she said, motorists generally obey the crosswalk law and for those who don't, the police are usually around to write tickets.
"It would help if you would give out tickets," she told members of the Board of Town Commissioners. "It's not safe to cross the streets."
"It's a concern we have talked about," Mayor Robert Reier replied, agreeing with Sedney that "it can be challenging" to cross the town's streets.
Sedney said some of her worst experiences have come at what towns folk call "the flatiron," where North Bond, North Main and Gordon streets come together on the north side of downtown. There are several crosswalks and stop signs and traffic often coming in four directions at once, so it can be difficult to negotiate for pedestrians, particularly if drivers aren't paying attention.
The intersection of Lee and North Main is also dangerous to cross, she noted, saying one aggravated motorist honked their horn at her when she was trying to cross. Another time, she said, a Harford County Sheriff's deputy was driving behind someone who didn't stop for her as she was crossing the street and did nothing about it, something she said would never happen in Hull.
Being that the Sheriff's Office headquarters is just blocks away from where the incident happened, Sedney said she phoned to complain and was told the Bel Air Police Department is responsible for enforcing the traffic laws in town.
"Our police department is dedicated to the safety of the citizens," Reier said, pledging that town officials and police will work harder to educate the driving public about the problem. "It's not getting any better, particularly with the increase in distractions," he added.
Several commissioners chatted with Sedney following the meeting. Town Administrator Jesse Bane pointed out that the Sheriff's Office, which he headed for eight years until December, has jurisdiction inside the town.
"It they see a law being broken, they can and should do something," he said.
Bane said he has long been concerned about pedestrian and traffic safety in the downtown area, where he said driving too fast, distracted driving and failing to yield to pedestrians are rampant.
"It's dangerous," he said, adding he would make a request for the Traffic Safety Enforcement Task Force to get involved in writing tickets.
Reier walks his dog several times a day and crosses many of the downtown and west Bel Air intersections where Sedney said she found drivers loathe to stop or slow down for her.
The mayor said he's had a few close calls himself with drivers who he said were "totally oblivious" to him and his golden retriever, Jack.
As a result, he said he has become extremely cautious when he goes to cross streets like North Main, "to the point where I will make eye contact [with an approaching driver] before we try to cross."
According to the Maryland State Highway Administration website, the driver of a vehicle must stop for a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk when:
• At crosswalks and intersections without signals, the pedestrian is on the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling or the pedestrian is approaching within one lane of the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling.
• At intersections with signals, when proceeding on a green signal, drivers turning right or left shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians lawfully within the crosswalk. When turning right on red after stopping, drivers shall yield the right of way to pedestrians lawfully within the crosswalk.
More information can be found at http://www.sha.maryland.gov/index.aspx?pageid=376.