Darker afternoons and drizzly streets can be a deadly combination for pedestrians at this time of year.
According to ICBC statistics, far more pedestrians are injured in crashes from November to January than they are between June and August.
West Vancouver police are among those who have been targeting pedestrian safety this month, with campaigns in Ambleside and Dundarave.
But at least one driver is questioning some of the techniques used by police to drive home their point.
Cameron Duff, a West Vancouver lawyer, says the "pedestrian decoy" that landed him with a $167 ticket recently amounts to entrapment and doesn't make streets safer.
Duff was on his way to pick up his daughter at school Nov. 19 at about 2:45 p.m. when he had what he describes as a bizarre encounter with the police on Marine Drive in Dundarave.
Duff said he noticed an odd-looking person in a dark hoodie, who seemed out of place, shuffling his feet on the side of the road.
Duff said he wondered if the man was high on drugs, before making eye contact with him as the man approached the crosswalk. Duff said he stopped and the man crossed in front of his car to the median in the middle of the street before Duff continued driving. But shortly afterwards, he was pulled over by a police officer and handed a $167 ticket - for not yielding properly to a pedestrian.
That's when he noticed the man in a hoodie - who turned out to be a plainclothes officer - circling back to the crosswalk.
Duff said he's fuming about the artificially-created situation - which he said was made confusing and dangerous by the plainclothes officers' strange behaviour as he approached the crosswalk. "I think it's unethical," he said.
Duff said he appreciates concerns about pedestrian safety, but added, "I'm not sure what having a decoy adds to the safety environment."
He's since dropped off a letter to the West Vancouver police chief outlining his objections and plans to fight the ticket in court.
Const. Jeff Palmer, spokesperson for the West Vancouver Police, said there's nothing wrong with using a plainclothes officer for pedestrian safety campaigns.
Drivers should be properly yielding regardless of who is crossing the street, he said.
Palmer declined to discuss the specifics of Duff's encounter, but said police are targeting Ambleside and Dundarave in West Vancouver. "We've had serious injury accidents there," he said.
On the day Duff was handed a ticket, he was one of 15 drivers given either tickets or verbal warnings to keep a better lookout for pedestrians.
Using a plainclothes officers is just one of the enforcement options available, said Palmer. "We'll use a variety of techniques and this is one of them."
This past Thursday, student volunteers joined police along Marine Drive to hand out safety information and ICBC safety reflectors to pedestrians.
