Armenia to introduce USD 10 fine for illegally crossing the road

From now on Armenians crossing the road at the wrong place will have to pay a AMD 5 000 (about USD 10) fine. A fine amounting to AMD 3 000 (USD6) will be imposed on those who cross the street at a traffic light junction with the pedestrian light flashing red.

If a person who has violated the traffic rules has no identification documents at hand, he/she will be taken to the nearest police department for identification and payment of the fine.

You will frequently encounter people in Yerevan crossing the street at the wrong place, even at locations where there is an underground passage or an overhead bridge in close proximity. Violators offer different reasons to justify their behavior. The young people say they are in a hurry, the elderly complain that they have trouble walking up and down so many steps in the underground passages and overhead crossings. In some neighborhoods the underground passages are so dirty that people prefer to illegally cross the street so as to avoid unpleasant smells.

Police officers say that illegally crossing the road mostly happens in Yerevan’s non-central streets. Such violations often result in road accidents.

According to police data:

• about 30% (1 010 cases) of road accidents reported in 2017 were vehicle-pedestrian collisions,
• and more than half of them (696 cases) were due to illegally crossing the road.