Who has the right-of-way? All photos by Paul Goldfinger, Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger 7/31/12. Ocean Township, NJ.
In the Wegmans parking lot, there is a recurring conflict: the pedestrian (usually pushing a shopping cart) vs. a moving vehicle. This theme of human vs. machine at Wegmans has a few variations, but you can see it played out there over and over, either as customers leave or enter the store, or as the customer makes his way up the aisles in the parking lot while drivers are pulling out of spaces, entering spaces, driving in the aisles or across the aisles.
The situation is punctuated by the presence of red stop signs, “stop” written on the road itself, or the hatched lines across the roads indicating a pedestrian walk.
This man is already in the walkway, so he has the right of way, but keep your eyes open or you could wind up in the ambulance. All photos by Paul Goldfinger, Blogfinger.net.
It turns out that the usual traffic laws do not necessarily apply on private property. For those hatched pedestrian walks, a driver does not have to stop unless someone is already walking there. That is true even if “STOP” is painted on the road. He doesn’t have to stop even if there is a red STOP sign there.
The driver does not have to stop here, although he ought to. It’s optional on private property—at least in Ocean Township.
For the woman in the top photo, who is barely into the hatched area, the driver approaching might think that she has not yet entered the hatched area, so he might legally go through, right in front of her. That happened to me recently at Wegmans where I was about to step into the pedestrian hatched walk when a car blew by in front of me.
An Ocean Township Police officer who witnessed my outrage came up to me and said that the driver did not have to stop. Of course, courtesy would usually prevail on the part of the driver, but if you are crossing there, don’t assume anything.
These people have the right of way, but they really ought to stay within the marked zone. The red stop sign does not legally require a full stop unless people are in the cross walk already.
An officer in the Traffic Safety Office of the Ocean Township PD told me that an officer witnessing a driver endangering the safety of a pedestrian at one of those intersections could issue a “careless driving” summons, but not a “failure to stop at a stop sign” summons unless, as noted, a pedestrian is already crossing.
The fact is that drivers often do not come to a full stop at some of those places in that lot which even have the red stop signs. So put away the cell phones and be aware as you enter the wild west of Wegman’s parking lot.
On the other hand, the situation is totally different on public streets and highways. The sign below is on Main Avenue near Firemen’s Park. It has a small stop sign, the word “for” and a silhouette of a pedestrian. It means that a driver must stop IF a pedestrian is crossing, and if you do not stop, you can get a ticket for running a stop sign.
Main Avenue, Ocean Grove. Many drivers ignore these signs.
Pedestrians: Do not trust any driver from any direction! Just stand there until the coast is 100% clear! A driver might wave you on as he stops cold, but some people will not take a chance and they will insist, with a wave of their hand, that the driver go past first. As a driver I might get annoyed by that after I yielded the right of way to a pedestrian, but it’s “fielders choice” for the walker or biker.
SHE & HIM: