Cop-a-doodle-doo. The San Francisco streets became a bit more colorful over the past six months, and this past Monday, Lt. Jonathan Ozol wore a chicken costume to cross the street. Poetically, this "chicken" crossed the street for the only purpose of issuing tickets to all drivers who refused to yield to pedestrians.
But if you think there are only chickens roaming the streets of California, then you are wrong. For the past six months, a selection of the most colorful creatures have crossed the road in the hopes of not getting hit by incoming traffic. A unicorn, a "Sesame Street" Big Bird, you name it, they have you covered.
The method San Francisco police uses in this exercise is as follows. Lt. Ozol would enter the crosswalk and, should a driver not yield, Ozol would wave at two other officers. Then, one of these officers pulls over the driver in question and issues a citation - which could land them a 400-dollar fine.
"If you don't see someone in a giant chicken costume, then we really have a problem," said Ozol, who would enter the crosswalk about 200 feet from an incoming motorist.
A Colorful Exercise Yields Results
According to Alec Regimbal, SFGate politics reporter, he saw Jonathan Ozol in his costume and how this exercise was able to pull over so many drivers up to the point that he lost count. Previous exercises - like the unicorn one - yielded around 30 to 40 citations each.
And while you could see this as a silly exercise, it has started to see results. "Drivers seem more aware, more cognizant. Certainly when they see the chicken," reflected Ozol regarding the exercise. Some might also think this is just a way for San Francisco police to make more money. However, Ozol estimates that about 30 to 40% of all pulled-over drivers do not receive a citation.
According to a report produced by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there were 26 traffic-related deaths in 2023. These represent a 33% decrease since 2022, which reported the highest count of fatalities in 15 years. Out of the 26 deaths, 18 were people killed while walking. "One more person that yields, that's one more person that's safe," said Ozol.
