The University of Traffic

This is a post in the hopes that the Dean of Carroll University does a Google search on his own school and this blog comes up as one of the top 3 hits.

I have always loved living near Carroll University. I loved it even more though when it was Carroll College and it was a smaller, quaint college tucked inside the center of Waukesha. What has happened is they have grown the college by leaps and bounds. They are building apartment/dorms exponentially and filling them.

Now I'm all for free enterprise and growth. I guess bringing in people to spend money in the city is a good thing. They will eat at our restaurants, buy our groceries (and beer), and shop at our stores.

That said, much comes along with the growth. First and most obvious to me is the traffic. Foot traffic, auto traffic, bikes and scooters. They cross the road wherever is convenient for them and I've almost hit a couple on my bike. It's perilous at 7:30 in the morning and continues throughout the day. Added to this is the traffic for the schools nearby as well as people trying to get to work.

This has served to make me a crabby man.

They need to build a bridge over the Barstow/College crossing. Traffic trying to turn left AND right are both backed up because students are crossing to get to classes from their dorms on Grand Ave.

They now have a campus security cop-car wannabe, a couple of student shuttles to shuttle the students 3 blocks and the other day I even saw a Campus Security Harley Davidson. I couldn't believe my eyes. A motorcycle to go in a 3 block square? Seriously? The thing will never see second gear for crying out loud. What's he going to do, write out warning tickets? Does he get orange and white lights instead of red and blue?

This is a sign that Carroll University charges too much for tuition. That and the fact that they change the flowers in front of the dining commons and the campus arches every 30 days, whether they're dead or not. It's out of control spending caused by out of control tuition increases.

All of this is happening because there was no plan. No campus plan for traffic, controlled growth or neighborhood impact. My advice to the Board of Regents and other University mucky mucks is to now figure out how to fix what they broke. Wake me when it's done.

Blogging off...