Why are there orange lines painted on the crosswalks at Main St and Church St and at Main St and Hayden Rowe St.?

The Hopkinton DPW at the request of the Hopkinton Police installed two orange lines on each of these crosswalks on Tuesday June 3, 2008.  These lines indicate 10 feet from the center of each travel lane.

They have been installed to assist the Hopkinton Police in determining crosswalk violations and to help educate the public in what a crosswalk violation is.

It is widely believed that that it is a violation if a vehicle does not stop in either direction whenever a pedestrian is in a crosswalk. This is not true; Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 89 Section 11 defines what constitutes a crosswalk violation.

Chapter 89 Section 11 states;

When traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right of way, slowing down or stopping if need be so to yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk marked in accordance with standards established by the department of highways if the pedestrian is on that half of the traveled part of the way on which the vehicle is traveling or if the pedestrian approaches from the opposite half of the traveled part of the way to within 10 feet of that half of the traveled part of the way on which said vehicle is traveling.

No driver of a vehicle shall pass any other vehicle which has stopped at a marked crosswalk to permit a pedestrian to cross, nor shall any such operator enter a marked crosswalk while a pedestrian is crossing or until there is a sufficient space beyond the crosswalk to accommodate the vehicle he is operating, notwithstanding that a traffic control signal may indicate that vehicles may proceed.

Whoever violates any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than $200

While the Hopkinton Police would like to see and urge everyone to stop anytime there is someone in a crosswalk, in many cases it would be permissible for a vehicle to proceed when a pedestrian is in a crosswalk, for example;

1. An operator of a vehicle would not be in violation if it passed over a crosswalk while a pedestrian is in it if the pedestrian was in the opposite lane moving away from the center of the lane.

2. An operator of a vehicle would not be in violation if it passed over a crosswalk while a pedestrian is in it if the pedestrian is in the opposite lane of travel walking towards the center of the roadway and is more than 10 feet from the center of the roadway.