The local DNR warden has a new truck (a full-size Chevy SuperDuperMacho 2500),
and while I would hope the state would be downsizing their trucks and maybe
using Ford Escape hybrids or bicycles, what really bothers me is the giant
pedestrian buster on the front. The small diameter steel bars of these
anachronistic devices, sometimes referred to as "brush guards," or in the more
common habitat in which they are found, as "shopping cart deflectors," are
absolutely disastrous from a pedestrian safety perspective because they focus
the force of a vehicle collision onto a smaller part of a pedestrian's body.
While someone might be able to convince me that these are needed for certain
DNR vehicles up north that are regularly used off-road (I would still argue
that the risks of losing headlights to brush is an acceptable cost to ensuring
pedestrian safety), our conservation warden's previous truck never had the
telltale scrapes and dents of a serious off-road vehicle. Instead, the
conservation warden for Madison's lakes drives on roads loaded with pedestrians
and bicycles, and crosses the Brittingham Bike Path every time he enforces
fishing regulations on Monona Bay. My beef is not with the warden, who in my
experience performs his duties professionally, but with the DNR or DOA
purchaser who bought this thing.
I raised this issue a few years back when seeing these obnoxious ped busters on
patrol SUVs at Peninsula State Park and I commend the superintendent for
removing them from that park (and thanks to the DNR/DOT pedestrian safety
people on this list for helping). Can we get a more systematic approach from
state government to pedestrian safety?
I was also thinking of contacting Hooper Construction and commending them for
their advertising efforts against drunk driving but asking them to consider
eliminating or reducing their use of pedestrian busters on their trucks as a
matter of consistency. Let me know if anyone working on pedestrian safety in
the state would like to team up on this issue, or if anyone knows the status of
any national efforts against ped busters (pednet?).
Pete
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