Sunday, March 24, 2013

Rules of the road » Corpus Christi Caller-Times


— Q: What does safe passing mean and is it being enforced?
A: The safe passing ordinance was approved about a year ago and requires vehicles to stay at least three feet and as far as six feet from cyclists or pedestrians, depending on vehicle size.
But signs alerting drivers to the rule haven’t gone up, and police aren’t actively enforcing it. It was unclear whether a citation ever has been written for violating the ordinance, police said.
Q: Why don’t bicyclists just ride on the sidewalk?
A: A sidewalk, as the name spells out, is for walking. Although laws allow cyclists to share the road, under the ordinance pedestrians must use sidewalks and cyclists must use bicycle lanes when available, such as on Ocean Drive.
For cyclists, riding on a sidewalk is illegal, often unsafe because it is designed for pedestrians and sidewalks end abruptly at each road intersection.
Q: Where does the city rank in terms of hit-and-run crashes?
A: The Texas Department of Transportation in 2012 released per capita crash data from 2007-11 for about 60 cities in Texas with populations greater than 50,000.
Among the rankings for the number of vehicle versus pedestrian crashes, Corpus Christi came it at No. 9, behind cities such as Laredo, Dallas, Austin, Brownsville, Waco and Conroe.
The same agency released data on pedestrian fatalities. Corpus Christi ranked No. 6 in the state for that category, per capita. It followed Conroe, Longview, Temple, Dallas and Pharr.
Rules of the road » Corpus Christi Caller-Times

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