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Increase Public Communication And Education On Pedestrian And Traffic Safety:

1. Seek funding currently available from the state and federal governments for pedestrian safety programs and activities.

2. Set up and promote a central County "hotline" where the public can call the County with a pedestrian safety concerns, questions, requests or recommendations.

3. Promote the County's website and Blue Ribbon Panel's email address to encourage citizens to follow the work of the Panel and to contact the Panel with questions and suggestions.

4. Promote the County's website so that citizens can contact the County regarding pedestrian and traffic safety concerns and complaints.

5. Publicize the DPWT "Citizen's Guide to Services" telephone numbers so that citizens and business owners will know how to report street light and traffic signal outages.

6. Provide for sufficient trained staff resources to follow through on citizen contacts with the website and "hotline."

7. Bring together business representatives including the County's major employers and representatives of civic and neighborhood associations to recruit their active involvement in getting the message out through their employee publications, newsletters, etc.

8. Meet with major broadcast networks in the Washington media market to recruit their active involvement in publicizing the County's "Drive Smart, Walk Smart" pedestrian safety education and enforcement campaign.

Increase Awareness And Enforcement Of Laws Against Unsafe Driving And Pedestrian Behaviors:

1. Increase the number of intersections with red light cameras, and more visibly publicize the red lighting running cameras program to deter red light running.

2. Increase warnings and citations to drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks and intersections.

3. Increase warnings and citations to pedestrians who cross against the light or outside of available crosswalks.

4. Publicize these stepped-up law enforcement efforts to create a widely felt perception that breaking the law will have swift and sure legal, health and safety consequences.

Support Safety Legislation In The 2001 General Assembly:

1. Support legislation to allow a driver's refusal to take a blood-alcohol or sobriety test to be admissible evidence in court.

2. Support legislation to establish 0.08 percent blood alcohol concentration (BAC) as per se evidence of driving while intoxicated.

3. Support the establishment of a Maryland Pedestrian Safety Fund so that counties, municipalities and appropriate community-based advocacy groups could apply for state grants or matching grants to assist them in enhancing their pedestrian-traffic safety activities, such as "Three E's" campaigns (education, enforcement and engineering).

4. Support legislation to toughen laws related to greater pedestrian safety, such as red light running, yielding to pedestrians, aggressive driving and drunk driving.

5. Urge the Maryland General Assembly to thoroughly examine the potential effectiveness of a law that would ban or restrict (i.e., hands-free only) the use of cell phones in motor vehicles.