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--> --> Street safety relies on the three E's Editor's note: Improving the safety of a community's streets involves cooperation on a number of different levels. The most thorough and effective strategy - according to traffic safety experts - is a three-pronged approach which focuses on enforcement of traffic laws, increased safety education for all street users, and engineering the construction of a city's roadways and sidewalks in ways which reduce the risk of injury to pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. Enforcement, education and engineering - the "Three Es" of traffic safety. The Tidings offers the first of a three-part series, running today, Friday and Monday, concentrating on these three avenues of improving traffic safety in Ashland. Ashland Police Department officer Steve MacLennan keeps watch on a pedestrian during a recent enforcement operation in Ashland. Ashland Daily Tidings/AMY ALONZO By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings Traffic laws are intended to keep people safe on the streets, but if the rules are not followed, a well-ordered, inviting cityscape can turn into a chaotic, unpredictable death trap. Many Ashland residents in recent months have made the argument in front of the City Council and other city bodies that Ashland streets are approaching that point - an opinion given weight by the December 2001 death of an Ashland woman struck down in a downtown crosswalk. When street users violate the laws flagrantly - either willfully or through ignorance - police must step in. Residents and city officials have called for more strict enforcement of speed and other laws, and police have responded. "We're doing more enforcement," APD Chief Scott Fleuter said. "We've been operating more crosswalk stings and officers have narrowed their discretion on speeders." Police have been giving tickets and setting an example in the last few weeks through the "stings," in which a stationary police officer observes as cars race through crosswalks, heedless of pedestrians. The officer radios ahead to another officer, who can then pull over the violator. The highly visible operation can open many people's eyes at once. "Enforcement and education are very closely related," Fleuter said. "When you see a police car with its lights flashing in the downtown, just one person gets a ticket, but you've educated a hundred." The extra operations have not been easy for the department to organize, with two officers on indefinite leave working for international military and police operations related to the war on terrorism. Fleuter has been scheduling volunteers to work overtime for the stings, which must operate on top of regular police responsibilities. Despite the undeniable importance of traffic safety, having officers devoted specifically to traffic enforcement must take a backseat to regular police patrols, which must respond to all service calls in the city - from loose dogs to reported robberies, rapes and murders. "That's the backbone of the department," Fleuter said. "You can't take people off patrol - but they are also doing some traffic enforcement as they patrol." Even without the recent focus on increased enforcement, the number of tickets written by Ashland police has increased in recent years, according to Fleuter. In 1996, officers wrote 3,261 traffic tickets. By 2000 that number had gone up to 3,357. During the same period, the number of reported accidents dropped from 207 to 111. While the numbers seem to indicate an improvement in street safety, things are still not safe enough for many residents and city officials. A recent debate at the council level - also sparked by the December death - pitted Ashland Traffic Safety Commissioners against a majority of the council and police officials. The Traffic Safety Commission, dismayed at the fact that some officers won't ticket speeders unless they're going six to eight miles an hour over the limit - or even faster - recommended the council direct police officers to enforce speeders down to those going more than 4 mph faster than the posted limit. The council balked at setting a specific number after Fleuter argued that taking away officers' discretion would reduce their ability to educate drivers. But Fleuter agreed to have his officers tighten up in general on speeders, and they have. Anecdotally at least, the enforcement efforts seem to have paid off to some extent. At a recent crosswalk enforcement operation, APD Officer Steve MacLennan watched the intersection at Siskiyou Boulevard and Gresham Street in front of the Ashland Public Library for more than an hour without seeing a single car fail to respect the rights of pedestrians crossing the street. "When we first started doing these, we would get 10 to 12 violations in a few hours," MacLennan said. "Now, it's more like three or four. "I've heard several people say they've noticed a lot more cars driving slower and coming to complete stops at crosswalks," MacLennan added. Email your... 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