Speaking of blowing red lights, I thought I'd share with you a complaint I sent to the City of Monona yesterday regarding the behavior of one of their ambulance drivers. I haven't received a response yet. I also submitted a complaint on the City of Madison Web site:
Tonight at about 5:30 pm, I was disappointed to find an ambulance marked as belonging to the City of Monona ignoring traffic laws and public safety. The ambulance, which was not in emergency use (no sirens or flashing lights), was preparing to turn right onto John Nolen Dr. from North Shore Drive and was in the "flying right"-style turn lane. The right turn signal was red and the lightpost has had a sign on it for years that reads something approximating: "No right on red 6 AM-9 PM." There are three issues of concern: (1) The ambulance was blocking the crosswalk that connects the bike-ped path on North Shore Dr. and the pedestrian island at the same intersection (the one that separates the left-turning traffic on North Shore from right-turning traffic). At the time, the crossing light was green; since the ambulance was on top of the crosswalk, however, people were unable to cross. (2) Even if there had been room to cross, it would have been dangerous to try, because the ambulance was not at a complete stop, but rather rolling slowly forward. (3) As the crosswalk signal turned from green to flashing red and the right-turn traffic signal remained red, the ambulance driver proceeded to turn right despite the fact that he or she did not have a green light.The "No right turn on red" regulation is there in large part to protect the safety of pedestrians and cyclists who want to use the crosswalk. I can't imagine that the driver broke this law in order to allow pedestrians to finally cross, since their window of opportunity (the green crossing signal) had already ended. Indeed, the driver was looking left and did not appear to see anyone to his/her right who was waiting to cross. I hope you will discipline the driver in question. The ambulance driver's behavior was illegal, unsafe and - given that ambulances are supposed to enhance safety and are viewed by the public as intertwined with law enforcement - laughably ironic. I have also contacted City of Madison Traffic Enforcement about this issue. Kathryn
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
