Got a ticket from an Orange County FL officer?

[voxelized]

Pay the ticket. Every place I've lived cars stopped (well most of the time) for pedestrians - except here so I thought the law was reversed. Lol.

The stupid stuff I've seen drivers do here is insane: U-turning in a traffic circle, U-turning on an entry ramp (to avoid a temp blockage)... combined with the general lack of skill compared to Europe and it's deadly combination.

[metal93]

At an intersection? Well yeah thats definitely a different story. But I'm thinking the crosswalks like ON OBT between I-4 and Oak Ridge. Those are terrible. Speed limit is 45 mph and they expect someone to stop to let people by? Thats just dangerous. I live not to far from hoolden, matter of fact my friend was in an accident today on OBT and Oak Ridge. it's just a dangerous raod.

It's Pine Hills road where this happened to me. On Pine Hills road the speed limit there ranges from 40-45 mph depending what part of the road it is, but everyone does 5+. In this occasion I was doing the proper limit, probably angering the driver behind me since they were tail-gating. The crosswalks there don't make sense, they just plop them down at random intervals where there is no light. And they expect us to stop if there is a pedestrian waiting to use the crosswalk, they could be just standing there not even planning on using it, and yet we have to stop. I thought the pedestrian had to be in the crosswalk for drivers to stop, not waiting on the side. I would stop if there was a pedestrian in my lane. Maybe they were on the other side of the road, but why would traffic on the one side have to stop if there is a raised concrete island in the center turning lane, the pedestrian can safely wait there. And most pedestrians there are too lazy to use them, they just jaywalk where they feel like. I've had a few occasions where I've had to dodge jaywalkers. And I'm a safe driver, I drive on that road 4 days a week for over a year now, usually when the schools open, and I'm always keeping an eye out for pedestrians, especially children. On this occasion I saw no pedestrian, could have been an undercover cop trying to get an excuse to give us all tickets. As I said earlier, 6 of us were pulled off into a side road where they just handed out tickets with almost no explanation. They were waiting there, it was a trap.

Too late to pay the ticket, I already have a court date set up. I'm not sure I can convince the judge that I am innocent, but I want to at least not get points on my license, I'm broke and can't afford my insurance to go up. I've looked into some law firms that deal with traffic tickets, some promise "no points on license" but I'm not sure. A friend of mine tried the Traffic Clinic for fighting a ticket for not having headlights on while driving at night. They fought it successfully, and he got off scot-free. Driving without headlights at night is a more serious offense than failing to yield to pedestrian, right?

[beach.guy]

Originally Posted by annerk

If you are rear-ended, it is AUTOMATICALLY the fault of the driver behind you.

Learn the rules of the roads. Pay the ticket, you were wrong. Slow down, back off, and use this as a lesson.

The law was recently changed in FL. Now the court looks at all the evidence and decides if there is shared liability between all drivers involved.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by beach.guy

The law was recently changed in FL. Now the court looks at all the evidence and decides if there is shared liability between all drivers involved.

Bottom line, if the person behind you is tailgating and hits you when you stop at a crosswalk, there's no court in the world that will side with the moron in the rear.

[Downtown Steve]

There is a reason that the studies that show Orlando has a terrible place for pedestrians is called "Dangerous by design"

We have a designed problem if we have 40-50MPH marked roads in places that people routinely need to cross.

I'm not sure what the solution is for this though. Do you limit private property rights along roads that were once highways and still might be? 436, 414, etc. Where do you draw that line? Obviously 434 near UCF is no longer a highway in any shape or form - parts of 50 are and parts aren't.


If you are going to allow people to build apartments and retail etc - and you know that people will move there, and need to cross the street (which I believe to be more of a god given right than the right to drive 50 mph through a populated area in a car that weighs a few tons) - at what point should the county or city planners be co-defendants in a pedestrian injury/death?

I fully support having crosswalks more often than you have red lights because the red lights are very far to walk just to cross the street. Frankly, it's unreasonable to expect that of people. That said, I don't think painting a crosswalk is enough. Put in pedestrian red signals like some bike trails have so a person can push a button which will case a blinking yellow to turn red. Central Florida has terrible drivers, but most of us still stop at red lights.


I think it would also help a ton to have "No Right Turn on Red" be the policy at any intersection with pedestrian activity. I think that this is the biggest reason we have people crossing 3-4 cars deep into traffic instead of at the crosswalk.

I dont accept that these people are doing it to be rebelious - I've seen their faces as they meander in front or behind me.
They really feel safer and I think a lot of that is because cars whip around on right turns which affects a pedestrian twice in one crossing (the first lane and the last).


As a driver, I've been honked at when I don't turn right on red because I'm waiting for someone in the crosswalk that the guy behind me can't see. If there is a "No Right turn on Red", I'll still sometimes get honked at, but then I just open my window and point to the sign to help the person behind me get a clue.