City to send blunt message to cyclists on sidewalks

Bicyclists in downtown Port Washington are about to get a blunt message on the sidewalks they often travel on — please walk your bikes on the walkways.

The messages will be stenciled on downtown sidewalks by members of the city Street Department crew as early as this week, Ald. Deb Postl told the Traffic Safety Committee last week.

Postl said the “Walk Don’t Ride” campaign has been a mission of hers for the last several years.  It began, she said, when she worked at a booth at the city’s farmers market.

“I was witnessing people flying down the sidewalks on their bikes while there were crowds of pedestrians,” she said. “There were people standing in front of Bernie’s waiting for their food and these bicyclists were flying past them.

“Somebody’s going to get hurt. I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

The city has an ordinance prohibiting bicyclists from riding down the sidewalks, Postl said, and she has been searching for a way to let people know about it.

On a recent visit to Appleton, she found her answer. The message Walk Your Bike was embedded in the concrete sidewalks near Lawrence University.

“Because we have brick sidewalks on Franklin Street, I knew that wouldn’t work,” Postl said.

But she mentioned the embedded message to City Administrator Tony Brown and Public Works Director Rob Vanden Noven, Postl said, and Brown “ran with it.”

He ordered the stencils for the sidewalks, and the Street Department recently ordered the paint. The work could begin as soon as this week, Postl said.

Postl said she wants to bring awareness to the issue and the potential safety hazard some bicyclists bring to the downtown.

For her, it’s personal. Her brother was hit by a bicyclist when he was young and broke his leg in two places.

“Not only can you hurt someone, you can kill them if you’re going too fast,” she said. “I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

It’s a concern, she said, that’s shared by a number of her fellow aldermen.

The city isn’t looking to get bicyclists on the street, especially Franklin Street, which is narrow and crowded, Postl said, but instead wants them to traverse the sidewalks safely.

“We certainly don’t want to deter bicyclists from enjoying downtown,” she said. “It’s just being safe while you do it.”