Here in Wisconsin, in the city of LaCrosse, there appears to be an interesting and almost unbelievable lack of attention to things such as crosswalks, pedestrians crossing the street, and being courteous while driving. I've lived in LaCrosse for about 4 years now, and for most of that time have felt that there should be college classes here on how to cross the street.

I'm not sure whether this is local, state-wide, or worse, but this particular city is well known for pedestrians looking the wrong way while crossing the street, and cars not stopping for people in the crosswalks. I'm not aware of the actual statistics that have resulted from such conditions existing, but it seems to me like a bad combination.

I'm not an attorney or anything like that, but you can look the laws up yourself if you wish to compare my understanding of the law with what's on the books. Keeping that in mind, here are some of my observations. According to Wisconsin law, a pedestrian who is legally in a crosswalk has the right of way. In other words, cars are supposed to stop when people who do not have a "don't walk" sign are waiting to cross the street, and let them cross. This doesn't mean that they pedestrian has to be standing in the street. Some crosswalks are marked, and others are not, but any place where a sidewalk on each side of the road comes out to the edge of the street is considered a crosswalk. This includes the section of sidewalk that the pedestrian must stand on while waiting to cross. Pedestrians are supposed to wait until any car that is too close to stop safely has passed, but what I see is pedestrians having to wait for a very long time while people drive right past them as if they weren't there. As if that weren't bad enough, once a car does stop for the pedestrian in the crosswalk, other cars keep right on going past. I can understand how someone from out of state could make that mistake, since laws vary from state to state, but these are mostly people with Wisconsin license plates. Okay, so perhaps somehow they managed not to learn that particular state law. Maybe someone needs to tell them… it's illegal in the state of Wisconsin to pass a car that is stopped to let a pedestrian cross. It seems to me that most of the other states I've been in favor the rights of the pedestrian over those of drivers even more than Wisconsin does, so it seems to me that we should try to respect what little rights pedestrians do have in this state and let those who bother to use the crosswalk do so without having to wait a long time or dodge illegally crossing vehicles.

This brings me to my next point. Many pedestrians seem to completely ignore the crosswalks. If the crosswalk just happens to be the shortest route, they cross in it. If not, they cross somewhere else. Okay, so that is legal in Wisconsin as long as they give the right of way to vehicles when crossing outside of the crosswalk, but when I say they ignore the crosswalk I mean that quite literally. Even if the crosswalk is only a few steps out of the way, most pedestrians in this area will walk outside of it rather than take those few extra steps. And of course, that fact should come as no surprise, since most drivers also ignore the crosswalks, making it almost no safer for the pedestrian to walk in the crosswalk than out of it. If drivers would pay attention to the crosswalks and whether or not there are pedestrians in them waiting to cross, perhaps pedestrians would start to use the crosswalks intentionally more often than just crossing wherever they happen to be.

Here's another interesting observation that I've never seen anywhere other than the LaCrosse area. You may have noticed that I mentioned pedestrians looking the wrong way while crossing the street. Some people may have thought that was some sort of typo or a logic error on my part, since pedestrians are supposed to look "both ways" before crossing the street, so let me explain what I mean. People in LaCrosse, and especially those crossing outside of the crosswalks, tend to look in the direction that traffic is going as they cross the street. I'm not talking about the occasional person who's just not paying attention. People literally walk up to the edge of the road looking away from oncoming traffic, wait there until they think it's clear, and then proceed to walk across with their head still facing away from oncoming traffic. Interestingly enough, many of them continue to look in the direction that cars are going all the way across, turning their head when they reach the center of a two way street or just looking the same way until the reach the other side if it's a one way street. It looks almost as if they are expecting to get hit by a car and just don't want to see it happen. Best I can figure, they must be thinking that people will notice they're not looking and stop to let them through. I wouldn't consider that to be a safe assumption even if most of the people driving in LaCrosse at any given time were sober. This kind of behavior is just an accident waiting to happen.

Keep in mind that I'm not talking about children crossing the streets here. Sure, kids do it too, but guess where they're learning it from. Not only have I observed more people looking the wrong way as they cross the street than you would expect to see if people were picking the direction to look at random, but I have also seen two or more adults cross the street together while looking the wrong way, and I've even seen people look the wrong way while crossing the street with a kid being dragged by the hand as the cross, or even pushing a baby stroller in front of them as if it were some kind of magic shield. In fact, I've seen such things numerous times. I even recall one time when I saw someone almost get hit by a car as he dragged his kid across the street from in front of a parked bus. The kid tried to warn him, but I guess he wasn't listening. I mentioned to him afterward that it's not a good idea to cross in front of a bus like that because people won't see you until it's too late, and he told me that he knew that. Not setting a very good example for the kid to learn from.

Another thing that I never noticed before coming to Wisconsin is the case where a paved intersection has no traffic signal, no stop signs, and no yield signs. These so-called unmonitored intersections are dangerous, so watch out for them. Most drivers cross them as if the oncoming traffic has a stop sign, and many people cross them with their head turned to the right and often with a cellular phone held to their head obstructing their vision. As if that weren't dangerous enough, many people cross such intersections driving way above the speed limit, as if there's absolutely no chance that they might have to stop in order to avoid an accident. I once heard a police officer tell someone that they were at fault when they got hit in both passenger-side doors at such an intersection, simply because the car that hit them was on their right. The officer was obviously either unfamiliar with Wisconsin traffic laws of making some pretty big assumptions there. Yes, the traffic laws of Wisconsin do give the right of way to the person on the right in the case of an unmonitored intersection between two-way streets, provided the cars are approaching the intersection at approximately the same time and are both driving safely under the speed limit. In this particular case, the car that was hit had entered a clear intersection with no other cars coming, only to be hit by someone on her right who was going fast enough to travel over a block in less time than it took her car to get across the intersection. The driver of the car that was hit had no possible way to avoid that accident, but the driver of the car that hit hers could have avoided the accident by either driving more slowly or not entering an intersection that had a car crossing her lane in it. In other words, one safe driver wasn't enough. It only takes one unsafe driver to cause an accident. One person disobeying the traffic laws or not paying attention or just not being careful is all it takes to cause an accident and to cause damage to other people's property or even injury or death.

One thing that I have observed to be consistent just about everywhere I've ever been is the way people treat speed limits. It's as is the signs all say "suggested speed" because people seem to think that's the slowest they're allowed to go. Try driving in the fast lane "at" the speed limit, and you'll see what I mean. Many people will move over and pass you in the slow lane on the right if there is one, and beep at you as if you're obstructing traffic if there isn't. I try to stay below the speed limit, but of course I'm not perfect at it either. Sometimes my car speeds up going down a hill, or I forget to watch the speedometer good enough. Things like that are bound to happen sometimes, but when I have to go over the speed limit to keep up with traffic so that I don't "increase" the chances of an accident, it makes me feel like I'm sharing the road with a bunch of people who don't know enough or care enough to drive safely, and I feel bad for them.

I'm not trying to pass judgment on anyone. That's not my place, and it would serve no purpose. I'm not a law enforcement officer or a religious leader or a professional counselor. My purpose in writing this isn't to make anyone feel bad, but rather encourage a little improvement in what I see as a dangerous situation. The city has even went as far as to put out signs telling people that the state law says you must stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, but some people just ignore the signs and other people seem to think that the law only applies when such signs are in sight. Do they have to resort to giving out tickets to everyone who fails to yield to a pedestrian? I think the police have better things to do than to spend all day giving out tickets for the same thing. It's not up to them to teach us how to drive safely. It's up to us.

So, I implore you to please look both ways before you cross the street, watch where you're going, and obey the traffic laws. Don't just tell children to be careful crossing the street and then walk across in the middle of the block with your head turned away from the oncoming traffic as if you and the car coming at you were both indestructible. Set a good example for children to learn from by watching. For that matter, set a good example for adults to learn from too. Take the few extra steps to the crosswalk when it's not too far out of the way, and if there's a "don't walk" sign, wait for it to change. If you're driving, remember to check each intersection carefully. If you don't have time to stop for pedestrians or for cars that aren't going to stop for you, then you're going too fast for conditions and you should slow down and drive safely.

Donald A. Kronos, PhD.

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