The town of Hull, Wis., has a creative response to solving the problem of bike and pedestrian safety: Forbid bikers and pedestrians from using the roads.
Hull wants to restrict some of its roads to vehicle-only traffic — although if you log your daily run with the City Council they might consider making an exception:
A town public safety committee, which examined general safety on town roads this summer, came up with a draft ordinance in September that requires biking, running or walking groups to register their travel plans with the town or bans them from using roads outright.
The ordinance is in response to what town officials say is a growing problem with road safety, but local groups are concerned about the impact on biking and running in the town.
Yes, one might well be concerned that not allowing biking or running on the roads would have an impact on biking and running.
Hull actually has barely any traffic accidents — there hasn't been a crash involving a bike or pedestrian since 2008, and before that there had been less than one a year. But bikers and runners annoy cars sometimes, and isn't that just as bad?
[Town Chairman John Holdridge] said the town gets a lot of complaints about groups of people running down the middle of the road at night or taking up most of the road during the day, or bikers riding on the wrong side of the road.
Are you saying they've been breaching road-sharing etiquette?? By god, throw them in jail immediately!
