| By Big Radio News Staff |
Janesville police say over the last two years, they’ve seen weekend nights become a more and more dangerous time to drive on Milton Avenue.
Last year, cops spent 430 hours of overtime patrolling the retail corridor of Milton Avenue and Humes Road. The city’s police are now looking for answers.
For years, police have tried to break up car and truck drag racing along Milton Avenue. Now add to that officers’ efforts to halt an alarming, newer trend on the city’s de facto cruising circuit: high-speed motorcycle racing.
Janesville police Chief Chad Pearson says the last few years, his officers have had to deal with an increase in extreme speeding and reckless driving by motorcyclists on Milton Avenue’s retail stretch.
He says more and more often, the cycle riders will flee police at speeds “well over 100 miles per hour” — sometimes taking off so fast police can’t even make out their license plates.
Pearson’s police department is asking the Janesville City Council to designate Milton Avenue as the city’s cruising circuit.
That designation would not be to honor weekend vehicle racing on the northeast side’s busiest strip. Rather, it would allow the city to leverage existing state reckless driving laws that apply to illegal cruising activities.
That includes fines in the hundreds of dollars — or the ability for police to impound cars and motorcycles if police see the vehicles racing on Milton Avenue or Humes Road.
The Milwaukee and Court streets circuit in downtown Janesville for years in the 1950s through the 1970s was considered the city’s cruising circuit.
But the city designated that route as a cruising circuit years ago, and created rules to prohibit teens and young adults from reckless cruising and racing on the stretch.
Milton Avenue and Humes Road for years have functioned as the city’s main cruising area. Yet until now, police have not turned to major policy efforts to deter drag racers, tire squealers, reckless drivers and extreme speeders.
Pearson says Janesville’s northeast side has major redevelopment and revitalization prospects on the horizon — not the least of which is the construction of the Woodman’s Sports & Convention Center at Uptown Janesville along Milton Avenue.
Police seek to curb a growing concern of circuit racers and reckless driving that clogs a commercial corridor the city is grooming to become a regional draw for visitors.
Pearson says he and other officials worry that ice hockey families using the future Woodman’s Center, and other visitors to Janesville, will see reckless and disorderly driving on Milton Avenue and find it a turnoff — or a reason not to return to Janesville.
Or worse, police worry that through no fault of their own, visitors or residents could get caught in the middle of reckless driving on the city’s busiest traffic corridor.
Meanwhile, Pearson says police probably can find better uses for the approximately $30,000 in grant funding spent on officer overtime to deal with Milton Avenue’s reckless cruising problems.
Pearson says police view local and state anti-cruising rules as one tool to deal with reckless circuit driving to give all residents and visitors access to safe roadways.
Police aim to provide the city council traffic data showing reckless driving trends on Milton Avenue.
The city council will hear the proposal to dub Milton Avenue the cruising circuit on Jan. 27.
Big Radio Reporte-Anchor Neil Johnson gathered information used in this report.
