Bottlenecking Village Streets 10 31 2025

Bottlenecking Village Streets 10 31 2025

Part 1:

The kind of person who isn't going to stop for a pedestrian child, isn't going to stop for a pedestrian child no matter what you do.

I can remember about 50 years ago when I was on my bicycle heading West on Silver Spring and stopped at the Santa Monica intersection for the red light. I looked over my left shoulder at that driver. And I knew right away he was going to attempt to run me over. And I could also tell that he was of the same religion as the friend who was on his bicycle behind me that was coming with me. And that driver did attempt to run me over. When the light turned green he made a right hand turn and attempted to clip me.  (To put a better age to this I had to have been in the 3rd Grade or less because that friend moved away at the end of the 3rd grade.)  And he did indeed see me there before he drove into me.  And the handlebar section of my bike had to be turned back straight after that.  And after he hit me, I really didn't want him anywhere near me!  I didn't want him to use that as an opportunity to get close to me.  He looked like a creepy drunk?  Or just creepy?  Or didn't look creepy at all but the gestalt of it?

You're actually taking away a margin of safety for that child.

You have a city street that is meant to have a 25 mph speed limit and you are effectively making it a 5 mph speed limit. You might as well just make it marching lane for gay pride?

By bottlenecking those streets you are actually putting that good child who can listen in learn closer to harms way at that “bottlenecked intersection.” Whereby that bad driver, whether they know they have the intent or not, is in a “better” position to hit your child. Why? They are no closer to the moving vehicle that is crossing by, no matter what that driver is supposed to be in life.

Part 2.

So when I was a boy, and I have lived in Whitefish Bay virtually all my life. There was a train that went through Estabrook Park. And the kids from my school liked to get on the gravel by that train while on their bicycles and grab it and hitch a ride. So indeed what I am talking about here is temptation. In doing so, they are also tempting you to do that same thing. And it ended when one kid fell under the train doing so and it took off his leg.

I see bottlenecked streets as the same thing as this. A opportunity whereby your child is led closer to danger by a bad kid.

Part 3.

And so just this past year I was at Klode Park. And as I was leaving that parking lot a small boy on a motorized “toy” bike pulled in front of me. And he must have been knee high. And that bike could likely go 30mph. And he wove that bike right in front of my car and down the center of the street. As if to say that he owned that street!

The problem isn't the good driver, that knows how to stop for pedestrians. The problem is what the person who drives that tiny very fast motor bike in front of your car...what that person is still going to be when they grow up. They are not going to stop for pedestrians.

And right now, I ask myself, how is that child any different than the one who hitched a ride on the train, tempted others to do so in doing so, and ended up losing his leg?

Part 4.

So it is the first that I have read that children have been hit by cars in Whitefish Bay? How many? How come it wasn't news? How come it didn't make the bulletin the Village President sends out? Where has the importance of the matter been?

And what did one lady who worked for special education tell me? That Whitefish Bay is the hub for Special Education in Milwaukee? Does that contribute to converting our streets to not be for cars but for pedestrians?

© 2025 Thomas Paul Murphy

And by "Bottlenecking Village Streets" I mean whereby you make the street more narrow in certain spots by extending the curb into the street right there at what is an intersection.

And it was done at the Library?  I would have to ask and make a statement that if any child were hit by a car right there, after that bottleneck was put in place, it invalidates the merit of the whole idea.

Footnote advice:

And here is advice to good parents of good children.  Have your child learn to recognize the expression on his friends faces.  And it might give them an idea if something bad is about to happen.  Watch where their eyes are glancing?  Do they have a smirk on their face as if something bad is about to happen to you and they are not going to be proactive to stop it but rather complacent with it?  Are they looking away from something really quickly because they don't want you to see that it represents danger?  So indeed are these sixth sense skills?  Not really.  Did they see a "situation" and not want you to see it?