The Whitewater Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission met March 12. This meeting comes after two recent traffic incidents: the first being Feb. 11, where a motorized scooter rider was struck by a speeding car on the 700 block of West Starin Road near Hyland Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and the other was March 4, where a pedestrian was hit by a truck on the 1000 block of West Main Street near Walmart.
Following the motorized scooter crash, the Common Council directed the commission to educate the community on e-scooter safety. Commission member Kevin Boehm will work with the city’s media services department to create weekly public service announcements beginning in April. Members suggested using safety posters and working with the Royal Purple to reach the UW-Whitewater student body, one of the larger groups of e-scooters riders.
Members discussed several potential safety topics for the campaign. This included a reminder to riders to obey the rules of the road and paying attention when entering roadways.
“Stop signs and stoplights apply to scooters, e-bikes and bikes too. I think that’s pretty important,” member Steven Sanjyun said. “I think a lot of people forget that.”
Boehm said the Whitewater Police Department would be assisting with the commission’s project while also developing its own safety projects. The Common Council also directed the police department to share bicycle and scooter safety with the community. The department plans to host an event at one of the elementary schools towards the end of March, where they will give away bicycles and teach students road safety. Exact date and location were not specified.
In addition to the safety campaign, the commission discussed its latest draft to the update to Ordinance 11.40.070, which dictates bicycle registration and use throughout the city. In this draft, the commission considered including sections addressing motorcycle speed and operating while intoxicated. However, Police Chief Dan Meyer suggested removing those sections.
“He does not want the motorcycle ‘30 mph above’ [section] included in the ordinance,” Boehm said. “That is a separate ordinance already. There’s a section in that ordinance that talks about operating while intoxicated. We cannot pursue any charges for operating while intoxicated. So he suggested removing that topic completely.”
The next Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission will continue developing the safety campaign and will draft additional ordinance revisions before presenting it to the Common Council. The agenda and meeting packet are available on the City of Whitewater’s website.
