DOOR COUNTY (NBC 26) — What started as two people concerned about their safety while walking on Bay Shore Drive has turned into a grassroots organization of nearly 60 neighbors. They're pushing for awareness and safer driving along the road.
Stretching about 14 miles along the water, Bay Shore Drive is a popular road for drivers and pedestrians.
“Riding a bike or walking down this road when there’s no cars is a great feeling,” Jay Walters, an Egg Harbor resident, says. “It’s a beautiful place, but with the traffic in the summer? It’s scary.”
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For several months, Walters has been pushing for safer driving on Bay Shore Drive.
“People don’t realize that there is an issue here,” he says.
Last year he purchased and installed a radar machine.
“We are observing really a concerning pattern- a considerable number of vehicles traveling significantly, significantly above the posted speed limit,” he says. “We've recorded on this road behind you, cars going at maximum 131 miles an hour.”
Now, he's co-leading the Neighbors for a Safe Bay Shore Drive Group, which held a rally on Tuesday.
“The goal here is to promote prevention, community awareness and compliance of existing speed limits,” Thad Ash, Door County Highway Commissioner says.
As a grassroots organization, they’ve worked with local leaders to install more speed limit signs, they’ve installed two more speed radars and gotten the sheriff’s office to increase their patrol on the road.
“We try to get our people out as much as we can and do the best that we can to control speeds, but it really is a team effort,” Door County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Kyle Vasser says.
Vasser says there haven’t been any major crashes on Bay Shore Drive, but Randy Wiessinger, a local traffic safety consultant, says it’s only a matter of time.
“On bay shore drive, if we don’t do something about the average speed here, you will have the crash data, you will have the lives lost,” Wiessinger says.
