Council delays action on Main Street

By: Jerica Harvey

Posted: 10/15/08

The Whitewater Common Council postponed taking additional safety measures at the Whiton and Main intersection.

The council has taken up the issue three times since former student, Mike Chaloupka, was seriously injured when struck by a car crossing the Whiton Street crosswalk. He died several days after.

At the Oct. 7 meeting, Councilman Roy Nosek led opposition to reject a recommendation from City Manager Kevin Brunner, Chancellor Richard Telfer and traffic engineers for a stoplight and pedestrian barriers on either side of Main Street because of their cost.

"It's just more than we need right now," Nosek said. "We need to try and solve the problem without spending that kind of money and the added confusion for traffic in the area."

When the council discussed only one barrier being needed along campus to prevent jaywalking, Nosek said, "I don't know if students are smart enough to recognize a barrier on the other side of the street."

Nosek sought to postpone a decision on the traffic light until the city has researched the possibility of a HAWK pedestrian signal light. The Tucson High-intensity Activated Crosswalk system allows pedestrians to control traffic and force cars to stop when a student is crossing, which would substitute the stoplight.

Councilmen and student Max Taylor originally proposed to research the HAWK system instead of going through with the recommendation.

"I'm down for the lowest cost possible but we can't put a price on safety in these conditions," Taylor said. "I've talk to a lot of people about this, and students do not like, and are even angry about, the idea of barriers."

Only Councilmen Jim Stewart and President of the council Patrick Singer voted against postponement.

The HAWK system would cost the city between $65,000 to $100,000 while a stoplight would cost between $100,000 and $150,000 according to consultants.

Stewart said students make up a large part of the community and deserve all the services and consideration the city can provide.

"When you're dealing with safety issues it's always difficult with cost," Stewart said. " We're in a situation, like in all communities, where funding is stretched but we're talking probably $25,000 to $50,000 difference between a couple a light systems."

The council hired a consulting firm, Strand Associates to study options to increase safety at the intersection.

Luke Holman, engineer from Strand Associates, said the HAWK system would likely take until 2010 to be installed. It is only in experimental stages in Arizona and grants are not available for other states until current systems are reviewed after a year.

"We don't want to experiment with safety," Stewart said in opposition to substituting the stoplight for HAWK system research.

Nosek has said traffic problems only seem to occur when school is in session and the majority of students are living in Whitewater.

"I don't have any problems crossing Main Street when school's out or on the weekends," he said.

However, Chaloupka accident occurred on Aug. 26, exactly one week before UW-Whitewater began classes and one day before freshmen were allowed to move into the residence halls.

Voted in by District 3, Nosek was sworn into the council on April 17, 2007 and has not been afraid to voice his opposition against students for the past year.

"Roy's voting record does not reflect a support of students," Taylor said.

His first proposal for increased safety was to have orange flags at each side of the street students could hold in the air as they walked across.

When asked about being vocal against students, Nosek said that although he can understand how he's been construed as anti-student, he does have the interest of the whole community in mind.

"I think I'm just using common sense and it has far more to do with finding an option that is less costly and less intrusive," he said. "I'm not against the stoplight, I just think we only go that route as a last resort."

Nosek said part of the problem might be that students don't know how to use the signs, and told of an encounter he had.

"I came up to [the crosswalk] on my bike and a young woman was standing there waiting to cross," he told the council and audience. "I said to her, 'you see this button here? It's kind of neat, you push it and it lets you cross.'"

Repeatedly, he has cited speed and volume of traffic as his diagnosis to the unsafe crossing conditions on Main Street and asked for stronger enforcement.

"The road is wide and flat so it invites speed," he said. "I don't think another stoplight in the midst of a three block run is necessarily prudent. It's going to have a high price tag … we're not going to need that thing in the summertime when no one's here over vacations."

He continued to state speed as a major culprit even after Whitewater Police Chief James Coan contradicted him at the Sept. 16 meeting.

"All pedestrian accidents we have been involved with are a result of a failure to yield," Coan said. "It has not involved an issue of speed. The best way to fix the problem is to get people to fully stop."

Nosek also made suggestions to the university to lessen the amount of parking and available permits.

"Something I think would be valuable here is limiting access to the university by students with cars," he said at a previous meeting. "Limiting permits and not allowing freshmen or sophomores or having a lottery where only some students receive that privilege.

"Maybe creating a limitation on issuing permits to students and faculty who are living a [certain] mileage away. There's just too much traffic, needless traffic on that street."

In a telephone interview Monday, Coan said inattentive driving and failure to yield have been the main causes for pedestrian and vehicle accidents.

"Although this has the greatest impact on students because it is the campus corridor, we have a lot of student, pedestrian traffic, but it's also an issue of community safety," he said. "It is an issue that impacts us all … we all should work together to address it."