After a string of five incidents in the span of nine days, University of Wisconsin Police Department spokesperson Marc Lovicott said people — whether they’re pedestrians, bicyclists or motorists — need to look out for one another in the name of safety.
In many cases UWPD has received, Lovicott said they’ve seen a lot of reckless behavior from pedestrians and bicyclists. This is not to say motorists aren’t to blame in some of the accidents, but more recently, it has been the pedestrians and bikers who haven’t followed the rules of the road.
“Our worry is the next case is going to be something even more serious or possibly even a death,” Lovicott said. “And we need people to pay attention to this [problem] because this has become more and more of an issue. We’ve seen more of these incidents and close calls, and we have to do something before somebody gets seriously hurt or killed.”
The department “preaches” biker and pedestrian safety through social media and enforcement on Madison streets, but Lovicott said the end result is the same — people don’t listen.
This lack of attention is also reflected on Madison roads, as Lovicott said people who are in a hurry show blatant disregard for others’ safety and the rules they need to abide by.
Lovicott said UWPD is sharing videos of accidents on their website to bring this matter to the public’s attention.
“We hope these videos knock some sense into folks to a certain extent,” Lovicott said. “They are hard to watch, we get that and that’s the point. We wanted to share some very recent and real examples of some carelessness we’ve witnessed on campus roads.”
Vice president of the UW Cycling Club Alex Beszhak echoed Lovicott’s sentiment.
Beszhak said while following the rules of the road is something everyone should do, the awareness component of this situation is more important. In solving the problem, it’s about being an aware bicyclist as much as it is following the laws of the road.
“It’s definitely a gray area because to keep everyone safe, everyone should be abiding by the rules of the road,” Beszhak said. “But there’s a big difference between rolling through a stop sign on a country road and blowing through a red light or somebody’s walk signal on University Avenue.”
Beszhak admitted he rolls through stop signs in areas where traffic isn’t as high. But when it comes to blowing through a red light or busy crosswalk during passing time, he avoids the potential danger of that risk simply because it is that behavior that gets people hurt. He said he would love to see UWPD increase their presence on campus in high traffic areas to make those on the road more alert and safe.
Lovicott said UWPD will be increasing their presence with bike and pedestrian patrols on campus. If officers see an individual not following the law and being reckless on the road, they’ll contact the individual and depending on the severity of the offense will warn or cite the person.
