And nearly every fatal accident, Jones said, has its roots in a seemingly minor combination of misjudgments, such as a motorcycle running a stop sign or an SUV not signaling a right turn. We're all too busy with what we're doing that we see the streets as a means to an end. If there's a fender bender, people don't stay around to act as witnesses. Cars don't yield the right of way to pedestrians. Pedestrians are walking out in the road, talking on their phones, jaywalking.
Bicyclists are on the sidewalk.
In Berkeley, which has similar traffic problems, police officers in the traffic division brainstormed about the city's problem intersections and found that the more they policed those areas, the lower the accident rate became. But simply handing out traffic tickets didn't seem enough. So some officers got together and donated their own money to purchase coupons to hand out as prizes. I would get a little concerned when you get stopped by a police officer, but the idea is not to punish anybody. Last year, the Palo Alto traffic division and police department decided to do the Berkeley initiative one better.