When the Solution is as Bad as the Problem

Last week while in Savannah, I had a free evening and went for a leisurely walk through the city as visitors love to do in the historic city. On this particular evening I witnessed close to two dozen police officers, ticket book in hand, standing on various street corners. I asked one officer what was going on and he told me they were there to issue "crosswalk violations." Essentially, anyone crossing the street against the illuminated orange hand would receive a violation ticket. On one street corner, in a span of less than ten minutes I watched four people get ticketed.

The officers told the violators they were not sure of the level of the fine and the offender would have to call in to get the exact figure. The Savannah city council had recently passed a $208 fine for jaywalking that was widely reported, which made me wonder why the officers were "forgetful" of the amount these violators would be fined. Was this a method to avoid confrontation with stunned tourists? The jaywalking crackdown comes in the wake of an incident in which a Swedish visitor to the city was killed while apparently crossing the street legally.

According to studies done in major cities, "Pedestrian crash experience was little different in elevated fine and jaywalking-focused cities from the rest of the USA where little or no attention was paid to this problem."

The reaction to the death of a pedestrian is incorrectly focused and an overreaction. The "solution" has been blogged on, twittered about, and talked about by every visitor I spoke with in the streets. I heard more than one person comment in varying forms, "Last time I come to this place."

When your solution doesn't solve the problem you are trying to fix, and additionally creates more problems, the damage done has been compounded. In the age of information the damage becomes part of the permanent electronic record and travelers research cities to visit will eventually stumble upon reports of these draconian actions.

Make sure to review your solutions to the issues you are trying to solve. I've found many companies have the same type of knee-jerk response to public problems and actually make the situation worse. Make sure your solutions are not creating additional problems that can have a long-term negative impact.

As far as Savannah goes, I'd advise meeting planners, vacationers and anyone looking to stroll a historic town: Visit Charleston, SC you’ll have fewer "solutions" to deal with.