Cars yield to walkers, law states

LITTLE ROCK — Dear Driveby Mahatma: I’m unemployed, had to sell my car a couple of years ago and walk a lot. I get screamed at by drivers for crossing at an intersection in a safe manner, often at Central Avenue and Grand Avenue in Hot Springs. Doesn’t a pedestrian have the right-of-way at any intersection or crosswalk? — Concerned Caller

Dear Concerned: That’s Drivetime, not Driveby. The latter generally refers to traffic matters that involve firearms.

Arkansas Code Annotated 27-51-1202, “Pedestrians; right-of-way in crosswalks,” plainly states that drivers must yield “to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.”

Right of way is clearly explained in the Arkansas Driver License Study Guide published by the state police. Let’s quote some of this valuable driving resource.

A driver must do everything possible to prevent striking a pedestrian or another vehicle, regardless of the circumstances.

Drivers must yield where necessary to avoid striking pedestrians who are legally crossing the road.

Drivers crossing sidewalks when entering or exiting driveways, alleys, or parking lots must yield to pedestrians.

Pedestrians using guide dogs or carrying white canes have absolute right of way. Don’t use your horn — it could confuse or frighten a blind person.

Are there signs at Central and Grand that remind drivers to yield to pedestrians? One of the nicer things to have happened in downtown Little Rock was the posting of signs at all four corners of Capitol Avenue and Broadway. Those signs tell drivers they have to yield to pedestrians even in a turn.

Dear Mahatma: We live in an older home in an older part of Little Rock. Our garage is behind the house and the only access is an alley. What can you tell us about oversight for the non-named, nonaddressed alley world? — Wyatt

Dear Wyatt: A couple of things may be of interest in this matter.

First, maintenance of alleys is the responsibility of the adjacent property owners and is not the responsibility of the city. That would include potholes and overgrown vegetation. So says Bill Henry, the city’s traffic engineering manager.

Second, the city code — Chapter 32, Section 311 — says that parking in public alleys is restricted to alleys used for commercial purposes, and only then for commercial vehicles that are loading or unloading, and those vehicles must have business names and addresses on the exterior.

Otherwise, no parking unless the alley is so wide as to leave 10 feet available for other vehicles to pass. Should there be a vehicle parked in an alley, and that parking appears to you to violate the city code, call the city’s parking enforcement office at (501) 371-4528. The violator may get a ticket.

Mahatma@arkansasonline.com