Lola walks in from the garage and I immediately ask to see her speeding tickets. She says she missed out because the State Police were busy serving other customers. Madison has one high speed arterial that loops the south and west sides of town before connecting to the Interstate on the east. Dane County is one of the fastest growing areas of Wisconsin and daily rush hour traffic is increasingly crowded onto the beltline.
Mayor Cieslewicz prefers the word “density” to “crowding” and in most urban situations he considers density to be a good thing. When you are part of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, however, traffic is a bad thing for a city. In the utopian world of the New Urbanists, people will abandon their cars and crowd into public transportation. In the real world of Madison, Wisconsin people in their cars crowd onto the beltline and the congestion is becoming dangerous.
The beltline runs through multiple municipal jurisdictions creating a situation where no local government can justify using their limited resources on policing a regional traffic flow, and so they don’t. The result of having no probable consequences of violating the driving laws is that an increasing number of drivers are pushing the envelop of safety in increasingly tight traffic. The Wisconsin State Police finally decided to assume the responsibility for traffic law enforcement and announced that today they would dedicate seventeen units, including unmarked cars, in a crackdown on dangerous beltline driving.
The pros and cons of the crackdown were debated all day long. One group argues the problem is due to inadequate road design for the traffic volume and calls for millions of dollars of infrastructure development. Another group argues for better public instruction and calls for millions of dollars for driver education. I don’t hear anyone advance the idea that we can control the situation with no additional taxpayer expense by using the existing resources better. If the goal is to control rush our speeds, then simply have public employees drive their government owned vehicles as pace cars, with a few State Police squads positioned to respond when needed. Dane County is run by Democrats and I know that Democrats don’t watch NASCAR.
Mayor Cieslewicz prefers the word “density” to “crowding” and in most urban situations he considers density to be a good thing. When you are part of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, however, traffic is a bad thing for a city. In the utopian world of the New Urbanists, people will abandon their cars and crowd into public transportation. In the real world of Madison, Wisconsin people in their cars crowd onto the beltline and the congestion is becoming dangerous.
The beltline runs through multiple municipal jurisdictions creating a situation where no local government can justify using their limited resources on policing a regional traffic flow, and so they don’t. The result of having no probable consequences of violating the driving laws is that an increasing number of drivers are pushing the envelop of safety in increasingly tight traffic. The Wisconsin State Police finally decided to assume the responsibility for traffic law enforcement and announced that today they would dedicate seventeen units, including unmarked cars, in a crackdown on dangerous beltline driving.
The pros and cons of the crackdown were debated all day long. One group argues the problem is due to inadequate road design for the traffic volume and calls for millions of dollars of infrastructure development. Another group argues for better public instruction and calls for millions of dollars for driver education. I don’t hear anyone advance the idea that we can control the situation with no additional taxpayer expense by using the existing resources better. If the goal is to control rush our speeds, then simply have public employees drive their government owned vehicles as pace cars, with a few State Police squads positioned to respond when needed. Dane County is run by Democrats and I know that Democrats don’t watch NASCAR.
