Kids Ask Common Council for Safer Streets
Big increase in city pedestrians killed while crossing the street.
Postcards for safer streets were filled out by all ages
Kids and parents delivered over 250 Street Safety postcards and Bike/Walk District Reports to Alders in City Hall as part of Kidical Lobby Day on Thursday, June 29th. The OW Holmes Bike Camp “The Dream Team”, and families met at Red Arrow Park at 9:45 and walked to City Hall to ask for safer streets. Luckily, the people driving on Kilbourn yielded to parade of kids in the crosswalk and their crossing was uneventful.
Sadly, this was not the case for the 13 people killed while crossing the street in Milwaukee in this first half of 2017. In 2016, 14 people were killed while crossing the street in Milwaukee, meaning that we are on pace for almost double the number of deaths of last year. The kids aged 3 to 14 that biked downtown and asked for safer streets do not want this to be the case.
In meetings with Alders Cavalier Johnson, Nik Kovac, Robert Donovan and staff from Alders Milele A. Coggs’, Jim Bohl’s, and Chantia Lewis’ offices, kids described why safe streets are important to them and how people driving need to follow the speed limit and drive more safely so they can explore their neighborhoods on foot and on bike safely. Do you do your part when you are driving or biking? I am sure you give three feet to people biking but do you follow the speed limit and yield to pedestrians? Have you called your Alder and simply asked for safer streets for walking and biking?
If you didn’t make it, fill out a postcard at the Bike Fed office or a virtual one and get involved in all the adult focused advocacy work we do with Path to Platinum (bike focus) and MilWALKee Walks! Together, we can have fun, make a difference, and make Milwaukee a better place where neighbors can walk and bike easily and better know each other.
In Milwaukee, thirteen people have been killed while walking in half of the year with 14 being killed in all of last year. We have a pedestrian safety problem and it’s getting worse. Our streets are not safe enough and we are all lucky that kids are getting active to make streets safer for all.
To get involved contact Jessica Wineberg, MilWALKee Walks founder/Bike Fed Program Director at jessica@wisconsinbikefed.org.
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- May 7, 2015 - Nik Kovac received $10 from Cavalier Johnson
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Huge problem in the city… people need to be educated that they should be watching out for cars when crossing the street.
Step 1. Look away from cell phone and look around for cars.
That advice to “watch out” is even more applicable to motorists – it is the operator the large, potentially deadly vehicle that should be primarily responsible for not injuring others. Urban streets are not (or should not be) strictly traffic sewers – pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, motorists, and others are all equally legitimate users of streets.
What a nice picture of Nicole LaBrie and her daughter July.
Awareness isn’t the prevailing problem in this. It’s the almost complete lack of enforcement of traffic laws that have led to hazardous driving all over the city. The problem is well documented at this point, but Flynn has basically said that he is staying the course on this. It’s a discouraging situation.
As an old timer, I grew up with a similar public message as the one below that I found on a Cayman Island web site. It might not be a total solution, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to educate (or remind) people to be aware. I spent about 30 minutes on the road this weekend and encountered quite a few people simply walking onto the street from blind spots. They clearly had no intention of even looking to see if there was a car coming down the street. Perhaps police should start ticketing people that are too slothful to walk a few extra to use a cross-walk?
Cross at marked crosswalks or corners.
Stop at the edge or the end of the sidewalk.
Look left, right and then left again before you step into the street.
If you see a car, wait until it passes, then look right, and left again until there are no cars are coming.
If a car is parked where you are crossing, make sure there is no driver in the car. Then go to the edge of the car and look left, right and left again until no cars are coming.
Keep looking for cars while you are crossing
Do not run.
Mike and Justin both make excellent points. It’s been decades since I’ve been in elementary school, but pedestrian safety was always taught every year. Many times, there was an “officer friendly” from MPD assisting.
I know those were different times. The way people disregard traffic laws, heck criminal laws, in this area is saddening. Too many drivers (usually without a valid DL or insurance) don’t care if they run over somebody.
A pedestrian was hit and killed a couple of months ago less than half a mile from my house. The b**ch that killed her was fleeing from a different accident she had caused when she hit the victim. Then the driver attempted to dislodge the victim’s body from under the vehicle by driving back and forth over the victim! Quick thinking witnesses were able to block her vehicle from being driven off with cement blocks. Then the driver got out of her vehicle and walked off while on her phone! Thankfully, people called 911 and followed the b**ch at a distance. She was eventually arrested.
Sadly, this me first way of thinking is too prevalent and the cops are spread way too thin.
Obviously that person behaved in a despicable manner, but why don’t you save that language for your FB page. You seem a little unhinged.