Chief Roberts is on this list, although she doesn't have time to read
everything, much less actively participate.
One opportunity that I think we can leverage for this topic is that Public
Services will at some point (soon I hope!) hold a public meeting to reveal
the pedestrian improvement recommendations that came out of our Spring 2017
DOT Pedestrian Forum. As I mentioned in our most recent meeting minutes,
they have the recommendations in hand, but need to collect internal
comments to send back to the DOT, which then needs to produce a final
document. I don't know when this will happen, but Eric tells me that a
public meeting will be held when they are ready. Enforcement challenges
should definitely be one of the topics brought up at that meeting, and we
should plan on making sure that it is.
Another approach that might help is to continue to bring awareness of the
issue to our local politicians. We can always contact our council people,
and the upcoming election provides an ideal time to bring it to the
attention of all the candidates, both incumbents and challengers, for both
council and the mayor's office. I know that we have certain enforcement
challenges, primarily a limitation of both financial and human resources.
To the extent that politicians may be able to work with the police
department to help find solutions to the challenges, it's worthwhile making
the politicians aware of the need. Ask them what they will do to improve
the situation, should they be elected. The more people ask, the higher
profile it will become in their minds.
On Fri, Oct 25, 2019 at 11:35 AM Angela King <angela@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carson, I am so sorry for these experiences. Do any police officers attend
WSMAC meetings?
Below is taken out of Chief Roberts "Mission & Core Values" statement on town
website <http://www.westbrookmaine.com/308/Chiefs-Message>:
We welcome the opportunity to work with, and learn from, the community
we serve. As public servants, we recognize that we work for you - our
citizens - and want to include your input in determining where and how we
deploy our limited resources.
Maybe time to take them up on this and get police to monitor crosswalks!
On Fri, Oct 25, 2019 at 9:27 AM Carson Wood <carsonlwood@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Good Morning.
This morning about 15 minutes ago I was crossing Main Street heading
north towards Persumscot Commons.
I listened carefully before starting the crossing. Before I got to the
center line a vehicle blew by me going somewere between 45-50 miles an
hour. I yelled F you.
I just reported this as well as telling the story I told all of you
that you are now responding to.
I executed the crossing properly.
The only other thing to do is stop traveling which I’ve done for the
most part.
*From:* wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On
Behalf Of *John Brooking
*Sent:* Thursday, October 24, 2019 9:13 PM
*To:* wsmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [wsmac] Re: Crossing Main Street.
Here’s an article I just found that might be a useful thing to share.
It’s specific to Washington State, but I would think the statute and
especially the guidance is largely applicable anywhere in the country.
https://www.thewisedrive.com/blocking-the-crosswalk/
On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 9:06 PM John Brooking <johnbrooking4@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Thanks for sharing this with us, Carson. It’s too bad so many people
don’t observe crosswalks, and even worse when they don’t even apologize.
This would make a good subject for a Facebook public awareness post. Not
the exact story, but pointing out the general problem. Maybe one of us
could work something up for that.
On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 2:30 PM Carson Wood <carsonlwood@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Good Afternoon.
About a week ago Kathy and I were crossing Maine Street from the side
of Spring Street closest to the old city hall, now a bank.
We had the walk light. As we were crossing an SUV cut us off stopping
on the crosswalk.
Kathy said to the woman, you are in the crosswalk. The woman said,
well. Walk around. Kathy said I’m leading a blind guy. I, now angry, yelled
out F you . The woman yelled back F you .
If I had been alone this sort of thing is super dangerous because I
would have needed to find my way around a vehicle that should not have been
there. Guide dogs can be confused by this as well.
When these things happen, if a blind person allows panick to get a
grip the situation can become deadly not to say it can be deadly anyway.
This driver attitude is exactly why I don’t travel so much in
Westbrook anymore. Blind people from other Maine towns think of Westbrook
as the wild west for pedestrians with valid reasons.
