The New York Daily News published an op-ed on the Right of Way Law Thursday afternoon by Tri-State Transportation Campaign Executive Director (and former bus driver) Veronica Vanterpool. Here is the piece in its entirety:

I have an acute appreciation for both sides of the Right of Way debate now raging in New York City. Long before I became an advocate for pedestrian and bicycle safety in the tri-state region, I drove a bus. I’ve also been a pedestrian who has encountered near fatal incidents with vehicles while I had the right of way crossing the street.

Before Mayor de Blasio signed the Right of Way bill last year, drivers who failed to yield were slapped with a fine and points on the license — an inadequate penalty for an act that can result in critical injury or death.

Fortunately for users of the city’s streets, most of whom are pedestrians, the Right of Way law now makes it a misdemeanor crime when any driver fails to yield to a person who has the right of way when crossing the street.

Bus drivers (and their union leaders) think that because they have been arrested under this law, it’s unfairly vilifying them, and are pushing to be exempt from the law. I sympathize — but that would be a terrible mistake.

I wasn’t a bus driver in New York City; I drove in upstate cities while attending Binghamton University. Nonetheless, the experience behind the wheel of an enormous vehicle navigating tough turns fostered an appreciation of the myriad issues New York City bus drivers confront on the job:

They drive millions of bus riders around some of the most congested and contested streets in the country, while simultaneously serving as kiosks of information about the community they serve and de facto guardians of people both on and off the bus. The responsibilities and burdens of the job are great.

But bus drivers are trained professionals who must hold safety paramount in their day-to-day operations.

Efforts to dilute the recently enacted Right of Way law are a distraction from the bigger safety issue. Instead of debating whether bus drivers should be exempt from the law, the focus should be on how to get bus drivers the training and equipment they need to prevent injury and tragedy.

No bus driver wants to injure or hurt anyone while on the job, and nobody traveling on the street wants to get hit by a bus. But since 2014, nine pedestrians have been killed by MTA buses despite having the right of way.

The data supports the need for this law. More than 4,500 injuries occur every year in the five boroughs because a driver fails to yield to someone in the crosswalk. Hundreds die. This isn’t just a NYC problem — this is a problem in communities across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. But pedestrians and bicyclists in other tri-state municipalities are not as fortunate to have the same protections in the law.

Though my driving experience at Binghamton was very different from bus drivers in New York City, safety protocols were the same: check fisheye mirrors repeatedly, watch the tailswing and make turns slowly and cautiously. Like any bus driver, I was terrified of injuring someone with the bus. The pressure is even greater on NYC streets teeming with activity.

But the answer is not to water down the Right of Way law with exemptions for bus drivers. The Transport Workers Union has offered some good recommendations such as retrofitting existing bus mirrors to eliminate the blind spot and the use of audio systems so pedestrians know when a bus is approaching, which the MTA is now piloting. There should also be an alert system for the driver when pedestrians are near. Bus drivers must also have refresher training periodically to ensure that safety skills remain sharp and that driver behavior exceeds the highest standards of safety.

The intent of the Right of Way law is not to criminalize the hard-working women and men who operate buses. The law is intended to protect the most vulnerable users of our streets by creating a driving culture of extreme safety and caution. Motor vehicles can be deadly, a point worth reiterating to anyone issued a driver’s license. Those who drive professionally have a greater burden to ensure safety — the same expectation of safety applies to engineers, doctors or construction workers.

The legislation to weaken the Right of Way law is an insult to the families who have lost loved ones in traffic crashes. It is also an insult to bus drivers, as it suggests they are incapable of careful driving.

They can and must abide by this important law.