baltimorespokes

[B’ Spokes: The short version of this might be how the heck do we get schools, planning, police, local government and state government all working together rather then just saying “This is not my problem to fix.”]

from Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space by Richard Layman

The Examiner writes a pretty narrow story today concerning school crossing guards, making it out as if the crossing guards are making a mint of money at the public expense. See “Being a Montgomery County crossing guard has its benefits – $40 per hour.”

It’s a surprisingly complicated issue.

In the last post, I discussed police departments and pedestrian and accident analysis, but I didn’t get into the details about some of my learnings about the issue. What I used to say was that “police officers aren’t planners, and that’s not their fault, but they do need our help.”

Because they don’t know they aren’t planners, without awareness of the need to bring planners and transportation engineers into the equation when it comes to accident analysis and countermeasure selection, that area of expertise tends to not be part of the analytical system and approach towards traffic safety improvement. (Of course, this is an area where guidance from the FHWA in terms of the national traffic safety program and how it could be restructured would be very helpful.)

There is a similar issue with crossing guards. The way it works, crossing guards are paid for and managed by police departments, not the local school system. (This should change, but that’s another issue too.) When the police department can’t fill the crossing guard position–which is usually the case in most places because the hourly wage is low and the hours are short so most jurisdictions never have enough crossing guards–they are forced to have the shift covered by sworn police officers. While this has some benefits, for the most part, it takes police officers away from other service duties.

So the Examiner article doesn’t discuss this, and how, by paying higher wages, Montgomery County is able to fill most of its crossing guard positions and they don’t have to use police officers for unfilled shifts.

That isn’t the case in Baltimore County.

At one of the planning advisory committee meetings, we were discussing walk to school efforts and how to expand the number of schools promoting and the number of students participating in walk to school efforts, and the police department representative present at the meeting interjected, and explained to us “the problem” from “their perspective,” not ours.

This is from the draft plan that I submitted, although the final text in the posted draft may differ slightly:

The plan advisory committee learned that one of the barriers to expanding walk to school efforts concerns the supply of available crossing guards. School crossing guards are managed by the Police Department, not by the School District. Funds to pay school crossing guards come from the Police Department budget. Because it is part-time work (10 hours/week) for relatively low wages, the Department has a difficult time keeping the 273 required positions filled. For each empty position, sworn police officers fill in, diverting officers from patrol and other duties. The Police Department ends up in the position of discouraging walk to school efforts, because it can’t meet current demand for crossing guards let alone additional demand generated by new walk to school efforts, which would mean that even more police officers are needed to cover school crossing guard functions.

(In Baltimore County, they pay under $15/hour.) The Police Department ends up in the position of discouraging walk to school efforts, because it can’t meet current demand for crossing guards let alone additional demand generated by new walk to school efforts, which would mean that even more police officers are needed to cover school crossing guard functions.

I am using the word “discourage” nicely. They actually tell principals to convert walk to school areas to school bus service zones, in order to reduce the demands on the sworn police officers.

This was the related recommendation in my draft (which was excised from the posted draft):

Address the issue of school crossing guard pay and other incentive programs that will strengthen retention of school crossing guards to reduce demands on other Police Department personnel for school crossing guard coverage. Ensure that when additional crossing guard positions are required, funding is provided to cover the increased cost.

We found this out because, unlike in most bicycle and pedestrian planning efforts, I reached out to the police department and got the traffic safety and traffic enforcement divisions to participate in our planning advisory committee. Plus the accident analysis section of the Crime Analysis section of the police department’s research division provided us data that we asked for with regard to pedestrian and bicycle accidents across the planning area (actually they provided it for the entire county, but I was tasked with a planning effort for only 1/2 of the urban area of the county, about 110 square miles). Some planning efforts get and analyze this information, many do not.

I am surprised that Baltimore County has demands for more crossing guards than Montgomery County (177 according to the Examiner article) and Fairfax County (64 according to the Examiner article). But it is a big school district (110,000 students), just as Montgomery County (130,000 students) and Fairfax County (175,000 students) are large, but Baltimore County is physically larger than either county (Baltimore County is about 640 square miles).

But I imagine that the Baltimore County Police Department wishes they could pay what Montgomery County is paying. They kept asking for more money to address the issue, but it kept getting denied, and they are always in the position of never having enough crossing guards, and constantly directing police officer details from other duties to serve as crossing guards.

The issue comes down to walking to school vs. being bused to school. Higher wages for crossing guards ensures the success of walk to school programs. Sure this comes at a cost. It means you don’t have to buy and operate as many school buses, find school bus drivers (another problem comparable to the problem of finding and retaining school crossing guards), or buy as much diesel fuel.

A new school bus costs about $75,000. Diesel fuel costs close to $3.00/gallon. For a variety of reasons, it makes more financial, health, and transportation sense to direct resources to walk to school programs rather than busing students to school.

In an odd way, the Examiner article, by not telling the whole story, is advocating for buying school buses and diesel fuel and for school bus drivers rather than crossing guards. It’s as if they are on the take from a school bus manufacturing company…

And it’s very disconcerting that Montgomery County Councilmember Marc Elrich accepts the narrative of the story as stated, rather than digging more deeply into the story. From the article:

Of the millions of dollars devoted to crossing guards, 45 percent of the funding is for group insurance plans.

“Wow, that’s incredible,” Councilman Marc Elrich, D-at large, said upon learning of the ratio. “If everything is on the table — as we have been saying with our budget problems — this certainly has to be in the discussion.”

Police say they hire the “most qualified” people for the positions, but current crossing guards admit that job placement is mostly tied to personal connections.

Yes, the how the people get the jobs issue needs to be addressed if it isn’t an open and fair process, but in most respects, the issue shouldn’t be how much people are paid. It’s either that or the school bus and police officer details. The amount of money spent wouldn’t necessarily be reduced, if anything, it would increase.

Resources:

–Helping Johnny Walk to School (report)

–National Center for Safe Routes to School

–The Safe Routes to School National Partnership

– The State of Washington guide, School Walk and Bike Routes: A Guide for Planning and Improving Walk and Bike to School Options for Students

– White House Task Force on Child Obesity

Continue reading “1/3 of the story isn’t the full story: crossing guard pay and walk to school programs”

from Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog
It is amazing how many plaintiffs’ accident lawyers file suit, name experts, and then give a key expert like a treating doctor a call to find out the expert’s opinion on the case. It is equally amazing how often insurance company lawyers wait until after the discovery deadline passes before having a substantive conversation with their experts about the case.
Some attorneys just don’t want to spend the time to be proactive because, hey, the case might settle. Why spend the time on the front end lining up the treating doctor? In some cases, the economics of the case demand this approach. I would not line up experts in a garden variety soft tissue injury case before trial. Because your proactivity (a word I just made up) might not be in the client’s long term interest.
But assuming you have a very serious injury car or truck accident case and you need an expert, get the experts on board early. How do you know you need one? Do you have a problem with speed, with drinking, with highway design, with a “dangerous condition?” Well, you won’t know if you have any of those things if you don’t investigate your claims properly.
But when you discover these issues, here is why you need that expert early. If the issue is speed, you need your accident reconstructionist involved early even if you never intend to call an accident reconstructionist at trial – it is the evidence that is key. Skid marks fade or wash away, and vehicle damage is repaired. Photos are not always enough, if the depth of a dent, the gear a car locked into at impact, or the length of a skid is at issue. Dents get fixed, cars are sold for salvage, and you can’t measure a photograph. The design of the road could be changed, or lights and lane markings can be moved. Once the truck with the improperly secured load is taken away without being photographed, you can’t get that evidence back. After this happens, you can’t undo the damage to your case. But once you lock the important facts in with an early expert investigation, there isn’t anything the other side can do to make that evidence go away.
Continue reading “When to Get Your Experts Lined Up?”

This page is inspired by a horrible woman I met in Ellicott City, Maryland. Pulling into a coffee shop, she made a right turn right in front of me, forcing me to skid on both wheels and one foot, still tapping into her bumper as I came to a stop. When I politely confronted her in the parking lot, she spouted various anti-cycling garbage, such as “you should ride on the sidewalk” and “I hope they make you pay taxes”. I couldn’t even get it through to her that she nearly landed me in the hospital and herself in jail, so I thought of making this little sheet with some rules and statements on it. Maybe she was angry and rushed at the time, but if I had put this in her hand there’s a chance she would have read it later. From now on, I’ll bring a couple copies of this in my pocket when I ride, and I’ll put it in the hands or under the windshield wiper of motorists who offend or endanger me, when it doesn’t look like they’re ready to talk to listen. Maybe we’ll make another version to leave around in public plates. It works for Jehovah’s Witnesses, right?

Dear Motorist,
You have this sheet because you did something in traffic that put a cyclist in danger. We understand it was probably an accident, and we mean no offense, but please take a minute to read these points of laws, etiquette, and common misconceptions, to prevent future issues.
1. When you are preparing to make a right turn, watch for cyclists who may pull up alongside your vehicle. Remember to check your blind spots over your shoulders.
2. When you are about to make a right turn, do not pull up beside a cyclist or in front of them and then turn and cut them off. Just wait the extra couple of seconds for the cyclist to pass, and make your turn when it’s clear. This is the biggest cause of bicycle-motor vehicle collisions.
3. When passing a cyclist, go around them like you would any other vehicle. Leave lots of room: at least three feet.
4. A cyclist riding their bicycle is considered by law to be a vehicle. It’s actually illegal for cyclists to ride on the sidewalk, which is reserved for pedestrians.
5. Always check for cyclists before pulling off the curb to avoid a dangerous collision.
6. Cyclists are required to ride as close to the curb as possible [That is not correct, maybe in 14’+ lanes but those are rare.] However, they may need to ride further out when they have to steer away from drainage grates, pot holes, debris, loose gravel or sand, wet or slippery surfaces, rutted or grooved pavement and even dogs. Be aware of the roadway conditions that may affect a cyclist. If we are in your way, please understand we’re not slowing you down on purpose. If there was a bike lane or a shoulder, we’d be riding there instead. We do not mean to slow traffic.
7. The law does permit cyclists to ride side-by-side. We do our best to move single-file if we’re holding up traffic. A slight tap on the horn is a reasonable reminder if we don’t notice you.
8. Do not sound your horn unnecessarily when you are overtaking a cyclist. It may startle them and cause them to lose control. We get it all day, usually from people who are angry. Even if your motivation is friendly, we can’t tell the difference.
9. Do not follow too close behind cyclists. They do not have brake lights to warn you when they are stopping.
10. When parked at the curb, always check for cyclists before you open your vehicle door. It is the driver’s responsibility not to open the vehicle door into traffic.
11. Cyclists do pay taxes, just like you. Most cyclists also have cars, and pay all the appropriate fees, but that road tax is actually only spent on freeways and highways. Local roads where cyclists ride are paid for through local, property, and sales taxes.
12. All cyclists have families and loved ones. Many cyclists are injured or killed every year by motorists, leaving tragedy behind them.
Thanks for reading.

This letter brought to you by SharetheDamnRoad.com, cycling advocacy and apparel.

Continue reading “PRINT THIS”

By Ronnie Cummings and Lauren Evan
On Oct. 1, a law went into effect that requires drivers in Maryland to maintain three feet of distance between themselves and cyclists on the road.
But is this law enforceable?
According to District 1 Commander Maj. Robert Liberati, the purpose of the new law is more to protect riders in general than to cite each car specifically that breaks the 3-foot space bubble. For example, if a cyclist is injured or killed by a car, this is simply one of the charges that can be brought against the driver.
"We were briefed on all the new laws and how they affect enforcement," Liberati said. "However, there’s been no specialized enforcement because of that law."
Nevertheless, Liberati said cyclists are encouraged to call the police if they feel bullied on the road and to provide the dispatcher the most specific vehicle information possible, including the make, model and color, and of course, a license plate number if possible.
Though the presence of a witness is required in order for a citation to be issued, Liberati did say that police could keep an eye out for that particular car while out on patrols, or even track down the driver’s phone numbers and give him or her a call, warning them to be more careful in the future. This tactic is particularly effective if the car in question is a company vehicle, like a semi truck, since police can then call their employers.
However, the odds of sending someone to jail over the the new law are pretty slim.
"In most cases, there’s no evidence other than your word against their word," Liberati said. "What would happen in court? Probably not much."
Patch editor Lauren Evans unwisely decided to take her bike out for a spin down Route 1, to see if the arrival of Oct. 1 did indeed bring with it a magical bumper to keep her safe from abuse by cars on the road. It didn’t.
Continue reading “Testing the "3-Foot Law"”