Thursday, May 8, 2014

La Crosse Police Department Focus on Bycicle and Pedestrian Safety, by Madison Norris


The La Crosse Police Department has been awarded two Department of Transportation grants recently to place additional patrols in the community to focus on Bicycle and Pedestrian laws and safety. The goal of the project is to educate the community on the existing laws and ordinances to pedestrian, bicycle and traffic laws.

“It is more common for cars to keep going at crosswalks than actually stop for pedestrians. Crossing West Ave can be a nightmare at times. It is common for one lane to stop for a pedestrian, but the second lane will fail to see someone crossing and they just drive right through,” says UWL sophomore, Michelle Kilby.

The La Crosse Police Department will be using high visibility pedestrian and vehicle enforcement in areas determined to be places of concern in the 2012 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan.

There will be several officers at peak times and locations to enforce pedestrian, bicycle and traffic laws. The enforcement will include bicycle patrol, foot patrol, pedestrian, and traffic enforcement. Both uniformed officers and plain clothes officers will be on duty. There will be tickets written.

The first of several enforcement actions began on April 4.

Locations of concern in the City of La Crosse for pedestrian and bicycle safety:

West Ave: at State, Cass, King, and Pine Street.
Losey Boulevard: at Ward, Mormon Coulee road, and corridor in general.
Jackson Street: at 9th, 10th, and Market Street
4th and La Crosse Street
7th and Cass Street
Campbell Road and State Street.
Gillette Street and George Street.
33rd Street; No sidewalk area.


Specific rules and regulations for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians can be found by visiting Chapter 9 of the Municipal codes at www.cityoflacrosse.org