@M you will get no argument from me.
We really need to find a way to incentivize traffic enforcement in this town. The status quo is terrible! (I encourage you to reach out to your Alder and the Mayor’s office to express your frustration.)
We have created a feedback loop where people don’t abide by the rules of the road because they get away with running red lights, stop signs, and pedestrian crossing signs and so they keep doing it.
However, as someone who was involved in pushing for the in-street pedestrian crossing signs at a time when a New Haven Mayor and Chief of Police said they’d “never” be installed in New Haven (presumably because there was fear that bad drivers would crash into them and then sue the city), they DO help slow drivers somewhat. And they should be regularly installed where appropriate without us citizens always having to ask for them to be re-installed.
Meanwhile there has been talk of expending traffic safety efforts at the state level into changing the language of the law so that cars would have to stop when you’re “at” or about to enter a crosswalk, rather than when you’re already “in” the crosswalk. Your experience echoes what my gut tells me: it’s not worth spending more time and energy adding nuances to a law that’s already not being enforced as it is currently written.