DE PERE, WI (WTAQ) – The crosswalk enforcement effort, playfully nicknamed ‘Operation Frogger,’ has returned to neighborhoods around Brown County.
De Pere Police set up at the corner of 8th Avenue and Cedar Street for about an hour on Thursday, where dozens of educational stops were made.
“This is a very high traffic area for vehicles and for pedestrians…Right now we’re about education. We want to educate the public as much as we can on this. We don’t want even one accident throughout the entire Brown County metropolitan area,” De Pere Community Resource Officer Jedd Bradley said. “We’re dressing the pedestrians as bright as you can see in traffic vests. When they’re in the crosswalks and vehicles don’t stop for them, what we’re doing is we’re making traffic stops and educating the people on pedestrian crossing law.”
So the goal isn’t creating some kind of ticket-writing trap. It was advertised and promoted ahead of time through Wello’s ‘Yield to your Neighbor’ campaign – and even had signs bookending the vicinity saying ‘Crosswalk Law Enforcement Operation.’
“We have cones out, we have pedestrians dressed in bright yellow and orange OSHA-approved vests, we have squad cars everywhere in the street – you will still see people not yielding to them while they’re actually in the roadway,” Bradley told WTAQ News. “When the traffic doesn’t yield to them, it makes it more difficult. If I can get any message across, it’s to the drivers and to the pedestrians, that they’ve got to be aware of their surroundings. But drivers have really got to be aware of the pedestrians trying to cross…That’s the law. You have to stop and allow them to cross when they’re stopped and waiting.”
Before our conversation with Bradley even hit the 1-minute mark, three people had been pulled over for not adhering to crosswalk laws.
“Not gonna lie, I’m a little surprised. I thought we’d have better adherence to the rules. [But] overall through the last couple years, we’ve seen things improve I think in the city De Pere with people yielding to pedestrians,” said De Pere City Engineer, Eric Rakers.
Rakers says the education is extremely helpful for the city, because even the best infrastructure doesn’t always catch someone’s attention at the exact right moment.
“A lot of times we look for engineering things like traffic signals and things to take care of pedestrian safety, but there’s other components. Education and enforcement are big ones,” Rakers told WTAQ News. “We can’t solve things alone through engineering practices. We can’t put up the flashing yellow beacons everywhere. And even we do, people don’t always adhere to them.”
Here are some tips and advice to make sure you don’t see flashing red and blue lights after a close-call at a crosswalk.
“Be aware of your surroundings, especially this time of year with kids out and about. The kids are taught in school that as they’re walking through the neighborhoods, to the parks across in these crosswalks,” Bradley said.
“Indicate to the driver that you want to cross by getting up to the curb, but also establish visual eye contact. Because you are responsible for your own safety, you need to be cognizant and need to pay attention,” Rakers said.
More information about the campaign, as well as upcoming ‘Frogger’ events can be found here.
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