Mr. Poulson, Chair of Transit & Parking commission, I commute by bike from the near east side through downtown to campus almost every day all year round, and have since 1997. On the occasional days when I don’t ride, I take the bus, and I’m very grateful that we have a transit system that is the equivalent of transit systems in some cities much larger than Madison. But I find the beeping the buses make an annoyance. I’ve already started trying to tune it out, so I think at best the beeping is a distraction, and at worst it’s entirely possible that it makes the street environment less safe for some users. Last week as I approached the intersection of Williamson/Winnebago and Riverside, I heard the #4 bus(bound for the North Transfer Point) beeping from several blocks further west on Williamson. It passed the stop at Winnebago and Riverside and continued down Eastwood Boulevard. The beeping never stopped. I thought at the time that the mechanism must have been stuck for it to beep continuously like that, but after reading many of the comments on the bikies list serv about the intended function of the audible beeping, it may not have been stuck at all. Perhaps the bus was changing lanes on Williamson and again on Winnebago. The audible turn signal is not only not achieving it’s intended objective of increasing safety for many road users, but is probably decreasing safety for some, and it should no longer be used.
Thanks for your time, and for considering my opinion during the presentation of the Metro Audible Turn Signal/Alert System at this Wednesday's Transit & Parking Commission meeting. Chuck Strawser 1801 Helena St Madison WI 53704
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
