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City to make final decision on jaywalking
Jeremy Pink
Issue date: 10/29/08 Section: News
The Whitewater Common Council, in its aim to increase pedestrian safety, moved one step closer to enacting an ordinance against jaywalking on Main Street, approving the ordinance at its first reading on Oct. 21.
The ordinance, which was passed by a 5-1 vote, states it would be unlawful for any person to cross Main Street, unless at an intersection, at any point between Whiton and Prairie streets.
The council will vote on the ordinance again at a second reading on Nov. 4. If approved at the second reading, the ordinance would then be enacted. Fines for jaywalking would be $20 for the first offense and $30 for a second offense.
The ordinance was originally brought to the council forbidding jaywalking between Prince and Prairie streets but was focused to Whiton and Prairie streets.
Five members of the council voted in favor of the ordinance, including District 4 Representative Lynn Binnie, District 3 Representative Roy Nosek, District 5 Representative Patrick Singer, Councilmember at Large Jim Stewart, and Councilmember at Large Marilyn Kienbaum. District 1 Representative Craig Stauffer was not in attendance.
The lone vote against the ordinance came from District 2 Representative Max Taylor who doesn't believe the ordinance will be effective.
"I don't think this ordinance is going to stop anything in the long run," Taylor said. "People are going to jaywalk."
Taylor made a motion to widen the scope of the ordinance to cover jaywalking across Main Street between East Milwaukee Street and 12th Place, but the motion lost by a vote of 4 to 2.
"The reason I made [the motion] … is because if we're going to have a jaywalking ordinance," Taylor said. "We might as well have it be the entire Main Street and not just a one-block segment."
Taylor said he believed the reason the rest of the council members didn't approve his motion but supported Binnie's was because of their wanting to focus on student pedestrian safety.
The ordinance, which was passed by a 5-1 vote, states it would be unlawful for any person to cross Main Street, unless at an intersection, at any point between Whiton and Prairie streets.
The council will vote on the ordinance again at a second reading on Nov. 4. If approved at the second reading, the ordinance would then be enacted. Fines for jaywalking would be $20 for the first offense and $30 for a second offense.
The ordinance was originally brought to the council forbidding jaywalking between Prince and Prairie streets but was focused to Whiton and Prairie streets.
Five members of the council voted in favor of the ordinance, including District 4 Representative Lynn Binnie, District 3 Representative Roy Nosek, District 5 Representative Patrick Singer, Councilmember at Large Jim Stewart, and Councilmember at Large Marilyn Kienbaum. District 1 Representative Craig Stauffer was not in attendance.
The lone vote against the ordinance came from District 2 Representative Max Taylor who doesn't believe the ordinance will be effective.
"I don't think this ordinance is going to stop anything in the long run," Taylor said. "People are going to jaywalk."
Taylor made a motion to widen the scope of the ordinance to cover jaywalking across Main Street between East Milwaukee Street and 12th Place, but the motion lost by a vote of 4 to 2.
"The reason I made [the motion] … is because if we're going to have a jaywalking ordinance," Taylor said. "We might as well have it be the entire Main Street and not just a one-block segment."
Taylor said he believed the reason the rest of the council members didn't approve his motion but supported Binnie's was because of their wanting to focus on student pedestrian safety.
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