Eyes on the Street: Crossing Guard Clamps Down on Crosswalk-Nudgers

This vid from BicyclesOnly shows a school crossing guard, at Madison Ave. and 96th St., who takes her job seriously. Whenever the light on Madison turned green, BO writes, she entered the intersection to assert the rights of those passing through on foot. Good thing, too.

Every single time there were motorists that clearly intended to “nudge”
their way through the crosswalk without yielding to pedestrians, but
for her forceful, professional intervention. It’s pretty remarkable how
routinely motorists fail to yield, and what it takes to make them do
so.

The police department traffic officers posted at midtown and downtown
intersections seem to have a different mission entirely — moving the
vehicular traffic as quickly as possible, rather than making sure that
the motor vehicles interact safely and lawfully with the pedestrians.

This reminds me of an incident last weekend, when I heard a Times Square traffic cop mutter to a crosswalk-encroaching cabbie: “You’re a cab driver. Assert yourself.”

What if every TEA acted like this crossing guard instead?