Special patrols aimed at impaired drivers are common in Orange County (especially this weekend), but operations that target pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists? That is who the Newport Beach Police Department is concentrating on Saturday, at least along East Coast Highway east of Macarthur Boulevard in Corona del Mar.
]
It's part of the department's Special Traffic Enforcement and Crash Prevention (STEP) activities that put extra patrol officers in areas that are frequented by bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists and where recent traffic collisions have occurred, with the goal of reducing injuries.
“Education and enforcement will be targeted at drivers, riders, and pedestrians alike,” reads a department advisory. “The officers will be focused on specific offenses including driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, speeding, violating the new bicycle Three Feet for Safety Act, making illegal turns, jaywalking, red light violations, and any other dangerous activities.”
Funding for the STEP operation comes from a California Office of Traffic and Safety grant, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.