Here's how Frela Grubb crosses the street:
"You listen for the traffic," he said. "If the traffic on the cross street starts moving, you assume it's time to go."
Increasingly, that is not a safe assumption. Blind pedestrians such as Mr. Grubb, 48, and his wife, Debbie, 47, say Maryland motorists are running traffic lights, making illegal turns and blocking crosswalks, endangering their safety.
They and other blind people want legislation that would toughen the penalties for motorists who ignore blind or disabled pedestrians. Failing that, they say, they would like to see current laws enforced.
For instance, blind and disabled pedestrians often cannot even get to intersections for days or weeks after a snowstorm, despite laws that require sidewalks, curbs and driveways to be cleared within 24 hours.
"We're dealing with two laws that are not being enforced," Mrs. Grubb said.
Three weeks ago, the Grubbs and several other blind people testified in Annapolis in favor of the bill that would crack down on motorists who ignore blind pedestrians.
That measure won preliminary approval yesterday in the Senate.
Each witness expressed the same concerns.
"Thank God, I have not been hit yet," Philip Guntner, 44, of Loch Raven Village told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. "But it might happen, because no one gives me the right of way."
Debbie Grubb has been struck. On Dec. 14, when she was walking south along York Road in Lutherville and a traffic light changed giving her the right of way, Mrs. Grubb began to cross Seminary Avenue with her guide dog, Libby. She was struck and knocked to the ground by a car turning left onto Seminary.
Mrs. Grubb was not badly hurt but was frightened. The motorist said she had been blinded by headlights and had not seen Mrs. Grubb crossing the street.
"Somebody's going to get killed," Mrs. Grubb told the Senate panel. "It might have been me."
Police in Maryland keep statistics on the number of pedestrians struck and killed but do not keep track of how many of those pedestrians are blind. In 1987, a blind couple were struck and killed in Wheaton as they tried to cross a street.
Mrs. Grubb, a former Frederick County high school English teacher who is a well-known advocate for the blind, said it was safer and easier to cross the street before right and left turns on red became legal.
Blind since birth, Mrs. Grubb grew up on a farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore and attended the Maryland School for the Blind in Parkville, where she met her future husband, an East Baltimore native who went blind at the age of 8 because of cancer.
At the school, they were given mobility training, and each graduated from a public high school -- she from Eastern, he from City College. They are experienced travelers who for years got around safely using canes.
In recent years, Mr. and Mrs. Grubb have obtained guide dogs that are trained to help them safely navigate neighborhoods, shops, malls and busy streets.
Still, each time the Grubbs go out, they are making what amounts to a leap of faith: that drivers of cars, trucks and buses will obey traffic laws.
Michael J. McKelvin, a spokesman for the state police, said there is a general problem with Maryland motorists who fail to grant the right of way to pedestrians. "Care is not given," he said.
Jim Gashel, director of governmental affairs for the National Federation of the Blind, said the problem has to do with all pedestrians, not just blind ones.
"Traffic is supposed to yield the right of way to pedestrians" whether they are blind or sighted, he said. "If we can get that drummed into drivers' heads, I think we'd all be better off."
In Maryland, motorists must yield to pedestrians in an intersection, even if there is no crosswalk. Drivers must stop for any pedestrian crossing a street who is using a wheelchair, a motorized scooter, crutches, a white cane or a guide dog.
Failing to grant the right of way to a blind or disabled pedestrian is a misdemeanor that carries a penalty of one point and a $40 fine, but Mrs. Grubb said the law is rarely enforced. She and others testified in support of a bill that would impose two points on a motorist for a first offense, four points for a second offense and five points if the violation led to an accident.
What sometimes happens to Mr. Guntner is not unusual for blind pedestrians: getting caught in the middle of a street with cars whizzing past in both directions.
He waits at an intersection for the light to change in his favor, determining that by sound and with the help of his guide dog, Irena. But he often has to wait because motorists who also have the light are making right turns and not allowing him to cross.
When he is delayed like that, Mr. Guntner may get only halfway across the street before traffic begins moving again and he is caught in the middle.
Before he got his guide dog, Mr. Guntner said, cars would sometimes run into his cane as he stood in the street.
Knowing he could be hit is a "constant fear," Mr. Guntner said, "Unfortunately, it's something I have to live with. I just hope nothing happens."
Kirk Walter, director of external relations at the Maryland School for the Blind, said that for blind pedestrians, facing the fear is part of being independent.
"It does take a tremendous amount of energy to do that, emotionally," he said.
More than anything, blind pedestrians such as the Grubbs and Mr. Guntner would like the laws enforced. They are angered that, for instance, Baltimore County police admit they do not enforce the law requiring that sidewalks, curbs and driveways be cleared of snow.
"We have been dealing with this for several years," said Debbie Grubb. "We are not getting anywhere."