He is great timing for this. GLad he is okay though. You cannot DART into traffic!
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Pedestrian hit by car injured, ticketed

By SHELLY BIRKELO ( Contact ) Thursday, January 5, 2012 - 5:43 a.m.

JANESVILLE—A pedestrian who stepped in front of a vehicle Wednesday night remains hospitalized but was listed in fair condition Thursday morning at Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Alan Erdman, 57, of 525 Milton Ave., Apt. 4, was crossing West Milwaukee Street, in the 600 block, at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, when he stepped in front of a vehicle driven by George Atkinson, whose age and address wasn’t readily available Thursday, according to Janesville police.

Erdman was ticketed for sudden movement into traffic and smelled of intoxicants, according to a Janesville police department sergeant.

He suffered a fractured right ankle and broken jaw during the accident and was taken to Mercy Hospital by a Janesville Fire Department ambulance."

Thanks - but I got it the first time, Rusty

fortune - not the pedestrian, have a sand filled container that the sign is attached to. Got it?

Once upon a time, there were traffic lights at E. Milwaukee and Parker Pl. That at least offered pedestrians a shot at crossing with traffic stopped. So, what was so wrong with that idea?

The value of enforcement is in how free word of mouth advertising affects future compliance. Enforcement that is both vigorous and random is the most effective. I'll bet some old-timers here can rattle off the names of a few small municipalities that earned a regional reputations as speed traps back in the '50s, '60s and '70s. How did those reputations affect your driving behavior?

The Gazette could support the initiative with stories about the unpredictable enforcement and explosion of drivers being fined for failure to yield. Word spreads like wildfire, especially with online social networking and blogs. It's not rocket science.

Duplicating the Dutch plan here would certainly be a bold move. Removing road signs, lane markers, and curbing in order to force drivers to slow down is an interesting idea but requires a great deal of faith.
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In a discussion here two years ago (http://gazettextra.com/news/2009/apr/25/...), some parents reacted to perceived pedestrian hazards near their children’s school by removing their kids from the sidewalks and chauffeuring them to and from school each day. If we tried the Dutch model here, those parents might forbid their children to play outside.

hmmm..note to self---ask husband why he doesn't make anywhere near $30 per hour after about 20 years working for the city.

Why bother with the signs? It's a waste of money. If pedestrians are too dumb to see an oncoming vehicle, that's their own damn fault.

Everybody complains about the minimal cost of the signs, but suggests expensive things like enforcement instead. A cop costs the city something like 100K per year, so $50 per hour of enforcement. That gives you maybe ONE DAY of a cop sitting there instead of having a sign.
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The flags are one way. Another way would be passive street engineering on the European model, similar to roundabouts. Using narrower driving lanes, such as adding bump-outs, and different street surfaces, makes drivers more aware of their surroundings, slows them down, and gives them or pedestrians more time to react. Some Dutch towns have experimented with eliminating enforcement-type signs *entirely*. It's counterintuitive to the American "communicate everything even if it takes a wall of text" model, but it actually works quite well. Perhaps someday Janesville will be so bold as to innovate in this area.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12...

So we should fill pedestrians with sand?....
that's funny but you know what most of the posters on here are full of and it isn't sand..

mteg your wrong, as I stated earlier it only takes 2 of us for sign work. But you are right about the union wages and it's great !!

mteg - sweetheart your green color does not look good on you!

Liberal job security

Probably takes over 4 people to replace a sign if they are city union workers. One to fix sign, one to hold yield sign, one to hold up a shovel and look important, and 1 to warn the others when union mandated break is coming-all at about $30 an hour per worker, plus the $25 cost of sign being replaced.

I wonder how many signs will be destroyed by snow plows.

Actually Sigma40 your right, it does take 2 of us to fix them. One guy to fix it and the other to watch for traffic that fails to slow down and yield

They could put a concrete pillar in the middle of the street and paint it like that....Probably require less maintenance. Having it spring loaded is just asking people to hit it.

Truth1 - dont forget, it probably takes minumum of a 2 man team to do this too. Maybe more, definately need a guy to watch.
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I agree about the clutter with signs, anyone look down milton ave once? Its crazy you cant even see though it because there are so many signs. pretty soon down town will be the same... we'll need 5 warning signs warning us that there is another sign ahead...and some flashing lights.

frogger- High hourly labor cost and it probably takes all day to fix one sign.

"Costs for repairs vary from $100 to $500, depending on how much of the materials can be salvaged. The signs are spring mounted, so light hits can be absorbed."
really- it is a plastic sign.

I am guilty. I bumped one one day. Did a uturn to park.oops. Freaked me out I though I hit somebody- take them all out. I like the flag idea but again no DARTING into oncoming traffic!
People just dart out in the road there. How do we stop that? How do we fix stupid?
A few times I had had to slam on brakes because of people DARTING into traffic. Here and Milw street by the brigde. If it was icey out you may have been hit!
Yes you have the right of way when you are in the intersection but you don't have the right to DART into traffic making us slam on brakes to stop for you. WAIT until it is safe to cross.
I bring this up again- there was an article about a guy getting a ticket(on foot) for ruinning into a car. Did not have the right away!
The one on E Milw where they have to push a button for the lights to blink is not used as it should be either. My fav is bikers who fly accross and no way did they hit the button. I see people race, yes race, to get to the one lane first and somebody will get hit some day because they wont push the button to warn drivers somebody is crossing.
I agree Vector- they are not tall enough. You cannot see them when you are next to them.

So we should fill pedestrians with sand?

Lived on a street where some punk liked to knock over garbage cans with his car, until one of the neighbors filled one with sand. Saw a auto in an adjoining neighborhood without a headlight and bumper damage on the right side.
Result no more knocked over garbage cans.

Well, since the community probably spent a ton on the study and eventual implementation of these signs, I guess they'll be repairing them into the future. I know where they are downtown, and stop for pedestrians as I always have, but I just don't "see" the signs anymore, as Sigma suggests. All other traffic related signs are tall, set in my line of sight and certainly not in the middle of the road when I'm busy looking at traffic, for a parking space, for pedestrians and car doors opening etc. They try to make downtown more friendly and accessible and have in effect just cluttered it up.
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I think the money we sunk into these ugly, damaged, overlooked and misunderstood things would have been better blown on just about anything else, including vehicular force field research or pedestrian roundabouts.

I like Mooshoo's idea.

You mean you are not supposed to hit them? I think they are stupid and an obstruction to traffic. Pedestrians dont stand in the middle of the road 24/7 so why have a stupid sign? People become accustom to seeing an object in the road and forget about it... so when a pedestrian is in the road its not noticed as easily... these signs are bad thing. We have been crossing roads with cars traveling on them for over 100 years... why are we inventing new ways now? Nothing was wrong with the pedestrian looking both ways method, thats what I use and havnt been hit yet (amazing i know). I know a few friends that purposely run the thing over... its hilarious at bar time.

Wait? What do they mean the red flags aren't enforcable? They most certainly are. It took me all of 10 seconds to find the State Statute at about crossing at an uncontrolled intersection or crosswalk.

346.24 Crossing at uncontrolled intersection or crosswalk.
(1) At an intersection or crosswalk where traffic is not
controlled by traffic control signals or by a traffic officer, the operator
of a vehicle shall yield the right−of−way to a pedestrian, or to
a person riding a bicycle or electric personal assistive mobility
device in a manner which is consistent with the safe use of the
crosswalk by pedestrians, who is crossing the highway within a
marked or unmarked crosswalk.

Red flag or no red flag, VEHICLES SHALL YIELD THE RIGHT-OF-WAY.

For those of you calling for cameras and then issuing tickets from the cameras there is one slight flaw in your ideas. It is not legal to use traffic cams and issue citations from them in the state of Wisconsin. So if the city tried it they would be opening themselves to lawsuits, which will do nothing but waste more taxpayers money!

Or you could have above the street flashing signs like they do in Whitewater for pedestrians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlMj76Oqk...

Mooshoo- Oh no!!.....couldn't do that, that would endanger/inconvenience reckless drivers and everyone knows they're the privileged offenders.

Drivers should be more aware but in all fairness These signs are simply a bad idea. So is the red flag idea proposed by the city councilman.

"Paint the sign on the face of a solid steel "I" beam sunk-in on the center line. Guaranteed, the offender will only hit it one time."
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HAHA..I remember a friend doing that once after he kept having his mailbox run over by kids screwing around! Solved that problem real fast!

This issue has been going on for a couple years and this has just been looked at?

MadCityDad took the words out of my mouth. Try crossing with the right of way. God help you if you're on a bike on any Janesville street... you'll need it. Bike Lane stands for "more space to cut around a left turning car so you don't have to stop".

In the Red Flag program there are several flags at each crossing so that they are available which ever direction you are crossing.

Paint the sign on the face of a solid steel "I" beam sunk-in on the center line. Guaranteed, the offender will only hit it one time.

Packolies, I know what you mean, that KAAAWHAM is annoying when you are talking on the cell.

Northman, I agree. Pop some cams at the corner ans simply write citations for the idiots that seem to think they own the roads. A couple of tickets will at least make the paper. Moronic people driving blindly...

everytime I look up from a text some fool keeps putting up signs.. kaaaawhaaaaam

The Red Flag program wouldn't work.
1. There's at least a 50% chance the flag would be on the opposite side of the street from where you are standing.
2. People would be reluctant to carry the red flag for fear of looking like a dork.
3. Kids would steal the flags.

I would bet that if the police aimed a surveillance camera at the signs, they’d find that most of the hits happened after a car deliberately swerved into it. Dollars to doughnuts, the local disadvantaged youth think it’s great fun to clip these things as they go by. It’s not reckless driving, it’s juvenile delinquency.

Just wait and see how many signs will be damaged once the snow comes.

....probably "texting" or on cell phones too...

Years of shoddy enforcement, not just there, not just in Jvl, but EVERYWHERE.
The people that do these things are no doubt the ones who end up injuring and killing people in other locations.
Amazing how many reckless drivers are able to keep their drivers licenses...Anyone that does much driving sees them every day.
Sure, a lot of drivers often go up to 10mph over the limit, which isn't good, but there are quite a few regularly going 15-20 over ALL the time, they're probably the ones hitting the signs too and they still manage to keep drivers licenses..Deaths and injuries just waiting to happen.

Pedestrians will have less chances to hit them.

If drivers are hitting these signs right and left, what chance does a pedestrian have?