Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Commission present safety plan

STEVENS POINT — The Bicycle and Pedestrian Street Safety Commission presented a draft of the Portage County Safety Action Plan on May 13.
The Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, presented by Associate Planner Adam Kuhn, is designed to eliminate all fatal and serious injuries. Unlike previous safety plans that focused on bicyclists and pedestrians, this safety plan is aimed to focus on the safety of all road users.
High risk areas identified within the city include the Business 51 corridor, Maria Drive, West River Drive and the Main Street corridor.
Separated bike lanes were tested on Water Street and Michigan Avenue and showed a successful slight downtick in median speeds.
The safety plan included proposed projects for the highest risk areas and intersections, with some projects detailing crosswalk lighting or the addition of stop signs to make four way stops.

Commissioners discussed the need for better traffic enforcement along with public education alongside road and infrastructure changes, with commissioners noting how roundabouts aren’t always used properly or the high rate of speed in which cars enter the Division Street roundabout after exiting the highway.
Many drivers and pedestrians often struggle with handling multi-lane roundabouts. Director of Public Works, Scott Beduhn, mentioned the suggestion on the safety plan of a turbo roundabout possibly being a safer option for the Division/Northpoint roundabout. A turbo roundabout, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is a multi-lane roundabout that discourages lane changing by utilizing raised dividers between lanes and turns.
On the safety of turbo roundabouts, the Department’s website writes, “This approach involves anticipating human mistakes by designing and managing road infrastructure to keep the risk of a mistake low. Road design and management should encourage safe speeds and manipulate appropriate crash angles to reduce injury severity.”
Commissioners also discussed law enforcement’s action in the safety plan, noting how they believe citations were relatively low for driving related incidents.
“I think we’re getting a reputation as a city that anything goes. The number of citations was shockingly low to me in the report for things like speeding and blowing stop signs.” Commissioner Guthrie said. Guthrie expressed interest on how the new police chief, Edward Orgon Jr., will handle traffic enforcement compared to the prior chief.
The safety plan report will head to Plover and Whiting for review, and then could be seen as early as June on the Common Council agenda for formal action.