What’s so urgent that drivers in Redmond routinely run red lights, fail to yield to pedestrians or illegally cruise in and out of center (turn) lanes or onto the shoulder of the road to pass other cars stopped in traffic?

In June 2007, the Redmond Reporter featured a story about Jeffrey Kuebler, a blind resident who uses a marked crosswalk at the intersection of Leary Way and West Lake Sammamish Parkway every weekday morning, to catch a bus to his job at the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind. Although he has a guide dog, he often has trouble crossing the street because so many drivers fail to yield or whip through a red light in their rush to get to work, school, or … who knows where?

Last month, Kuebler called the Reporter and said the problem hasn’t really gone away, in spite of our attempts to educate the public and police actions to crack down on scofflaws. And from this reporter’s observation, the behavior isn’t limited to just that intersection. Keep an eye out and you’ll see this type of “I’m so important that I don’t have to obey traffic laws,” audacity all around.

Commander Shari Shovlin of Redmond Police Department’s operations division confirmed that officers are aware of the bold and dangerous moves that motorists make when they’re self-absorbed and in a hurry.

“Since summer is gearing up and more people will be walking, I know our efforts in the area of traffic enforcement with regard to pedestrians always increase and we do investigate complaint intersections on a regular basis to see if there are problems or isolated incidents,” she said.

Redmond Police Lieutenant Nick Almquist said the best way to catch the red light runners is to park a motorcycle officer at a problem intersection — such as near the SR 520 ramp off West Lake Sammamish Parkway. That’s been done in the past, but with less staffing, it’s impossible to keep every busy intersection continuously monitored.

“We never want to discourage anybody from calling 911,” if they see someone breaking the law, said Almquist. But another way that citizens can help to curtail bad driving is to visit the City of Redmond’s Web site, www.redmond.gov and fill out a traffic complaint form.

Almquist said he gets anywhere from two to 10 of these reports each day, which allows him to look for patterns. Citizens can list the location and a synopsis of the problem. Sometimes they are able to provide police with license plates of offenders.

Most basic traffic violations, including failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, running a red light or using a turn lane to cruise more than 300 feet, result in a fine of $124.

If you cause an accident, such a rear-ending or T-boning another car because you’ve failed to stop at a red light, that ticket goes up to $175.

And as Officer Sande English told us last summer, many drivers seem to not know — or conveniently forget — that although it’s usually okay to turn right on a red light, you must first come to a full stop, count “1-2-3,” and only proceed if there’s no one in the crosswalk, or about to enter the crosswalk.

Slow down and think about what you’re doing before you do something you might regret for the rest of your life.