A. Very funny. Crosswalks are for pedestrians, as you know, and motorists must yield to people walking in them.

Anecdotally, there's been some improvement on this, said Cheryl Wittke, executive director of Safe Communities.

"A lot of people have told me they think things are getting better," she said. "There's certainly raised awareness."

Under Wisconsin law, drivers are required to yield to pedestrians when:

• Pedestrians have started crossing an intersection on a walk signal or green light.

• Pedestrians are crossing a street within a marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection with no traffic signals.

• The motor vehicle is crossing a sidewalk or entering an alley or driveway.

Drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians face citations with fines from $160 to $217, plus four demerit points against their licenses, the state Department of Transportation warns.

Last year, 52 Wisconsin pedestrians were killed and 1,349 were injured in traffic crashes.

Safety projects have tried to educate people, step up enforcement and provide engineering solutions such as signs that display a vehicle's speed, better markings at crosswalks and bright flags for pedestrians to carry.

"All those things are necessary to basically change a culture, which is what we're talking about," Wittke said.

More information can be found at www.safercommunity.net.

— By Anita Clark

Have a concern? Look for Safe & Sound on Fridays in the Local section. Send questions to: aclark@madison.com; 608-252-6138; Safe and Sound, P.O. Box 8058, Madison, WI 53708.