Ron Larson. Photo: Wisconsin State Journal/John Maniaci

Featured resources:
Wisconsin InfoLink: Before You Leave Home > Wisconsin driving conditions
Wisconsin InfoLink: Weather

The “Wisconsin driving conditions” link leads you to a site maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Near the top, there’s a link to winter road conditions — an interactive map. Point your mouse over the desired highway on the road map to get up-to-date information on the road conditions — including good, slippery, snow-covered, ice-covered, or impassable.

This is a very helpful site when deciding whether to venture out or to cancel your travel plans.

The site also includes traffic cameras located in various locations, including Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, Rock County, and Wausau. The camera images are nearly real-time and provide a clear image of road conditions.

Another good DOT link is the Road Weather Information System page. This interactive map provides weather information on highway locations throughout the state. Other DOT links include Incident Alerts, weather alerts from the National Weather Service, and Winter Driving Safety Information.

InfoLink’s Weather heading includes useful links, too: Current weather and forecasts for Wisconsin from the National Weather Service; Weather Central’s Wisconsin page; and Wisconsin Weather Online, which has quick links to NWS weather data for various parts of Wisconsin.

— Ron Larson

Ron Larson, a blogger for WisconsinWatch.org and staffer at the Wisconsin Historical Society, spent most of his professional life organizing information and helping reporters find facts and data as the library director at the Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times.

Of the 21 bicycle-vehicle crashes reported in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton since 2008, police reports indicate 19 involved international students on bicycles. People who live and work here say that out-of-town drivers unfamiliar with the area, congested roadways and international students' ignorance of local bicycle laws have created a perilous mix for bikers. Luke Davis/WCIJ

PHOTO GALLERY

Dells foreign student workers

Each year, about 2,000 foreign students descend on the Dells to fill out the summer tourism work force. Click the image below to see a pop-up gallery of photos by Luke Davis and Alec Luhn.

RELATED STORIES

Main story: An estimated 2,000 foreign students flock the Dells each year on special visas to work in the tourism industry. But jobs or hours aren’t always guaranteed, and some of them report the experience isn’t what they had hoped.
Substandard housing: For foreign students, it’s hit or miss finding a decent place to stay; some motels have been closed.

By Alec Luhn
For the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

LAKE DELTON — It was the first and last time Maria Kolesova would ride a bicycle in Wisconsin Dells.

On the morning of July 9, Kolesova, an 18-year-old work-travel exchange student from Russia, set out from the Surfside Motel in Lake Delton and headed into Wisconsin Dells, reportedly to go to the bank.

Kolesova, who studied economics and was an only child, worked five days a week at the Kalahari Resort Convention Center and three days a week at Domino’s Pizza in Lake Delton, a friend said.

Legally riding on the sidewalk on her way back, Kolesova struck the passenger side of a garbage truck as it turned right onto Wisconsin Dells Parkway. Her front wheel became lodged between the tire and the side step, and she was run over and killed.

Kolesova’s death throws into sharp relief a larger problem of transportation safety in the Dells.

Since the area has no public transit besides taxi, many of estimated 2,000 international students who come to work in the Dells each summer ride bicycles to get around. Of the 21 bicycle-vehicle crashes reported in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton since 2008, police reports indicate 19 involved international student riders.

A large number of out-of-town drivers unfamiliar with the area, congested roadways and international students’ ignorance of local bicycle laws have created a perilous mix, according to police, business owners and work-travel students.

“It’s the perfect situation for someone to get hurt,” said Sgt. Dan Hess of the Lake Delton Police Department, who teaches bicycle safety classes for students at local resorts.

The transportation problems in the Dells defy an easy solution.

Lake Delton Village Board president John Webb said public transit such as a bus or monorail have been discussed, but the cost would be too much of a tax burden for the 2,745 residents of Lake Delton.

Maria Kolesova, an 18-year-old Russian student, died in July in a bicycle-vehicle accident along Wisconsin Dells Parkway. This was her bicycle. Courtesy of Wisconsin Dells Events.

There are bicycle lanes on Canyon Road in Lake Delton and on Broadway Avenue in  Wisconsin Dells. But there are no lanes on Wisconsin Dells Parkway, which is the main thoroughfare for the largest resorts and attractions.

The state Department of Transportation tentatively plans to reconstruct Wisconsin Dells Parkway in 2015 or after. The project, if approved, could include adding bicycle lanes, said Anne Wallace, a DOT project manager.

But the northern portion Wisconsin Dells Parkway where Kolesova was killed poses difficulties because of the limited right of way, Webb said.

Many bicycle hazards in the Dells

Seventeen vehicle-bicycle crashes were reported in Lake Delton, and four were reported in the city of Wisconsin Dells since 2008. Wisconsin Dells Police Chief Bret Anderson said his city’s lower numbers show the difference having a bicycle lane makes.

Thirteen of the 21 accidents in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton, including Kolesova’s, occurred on Highway 12, also known as Wisconsin Dells Parkway, or “The Strip.”

Besides heavy traffic, the road is punctuated by intersections, both side streets and entrances to motels, restaurants and attractions. According to a 2003 statewide DOT analysis, intersections are the most likely location for bicycle-vehicle crashes, accounting for two-thirds of the accidents.

The analysis also found that nearly one-third of bicycle-vehicle crashes are “sidepath” impacts that happen on a sidewalk, crosswalk, or path adjacent to a roadway.

In Wisconsin, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk is illegal unless local ordinance permits it. Lake Delton requires bicyclists to ride on the sidewalk on the parkway since the four-lane road leaves little room for bicycles.

Hess said the Lake Delton sidewalk ordinance reduces accidents on the parkway significantly.  Nevertheless, as the accident involving Kolesova showed, it is far from an ideal solution.

One transportation option is a shuttle service run by the Fairview Motel, which houses foreign student workers.

Motel owner Mark Nykaza’s Ford E-350 van runs from Vine Street in downtown Wisconsin Dells to the Wal-Mart on the southwest side of Lake Delton eight times a day during the summer, making 10 stops along the way. The cost is $2 each way for the service, which started in 2008.

Nykaza also organizes trips to the Social Security office in Portage. He believes one reason his motel is full this summer is due to the shuttle service. Even so, many of the students who live at Fairview continue to use bicycles to get around, he said.

Bicycle rules different in U.S., abroad

International students don’t always know the rules of the road. Nyoka Robinson, 22, a work-travel student from Jamaica, said a lot of students think they’re supposed to ride against traffic. In fact, the DOT advises bicyclists to ride in the same direction as traffic.

“The way traffic is set up is totally different in my country … it’s very hard for me to get used to,” said Kayann Hemmings, 21, a fellow student from Jamaica, where drivers drive on the left hand side of the road.

Hemmings said she refused a friend’s offer of a free bicycle because she’s afraid to ride along area roads. She wakes up early to walk to work at McDonald’s and Culver’s restaurants.

Hess said sometimes, students’ reckless riding contributes to the problem. Motel owner Barbara Janus said she sees students cut across the middle of Wisconsin Dells Parkway on their bicycles.

“They think the driver’s gonna see them and stop, but sometimes it’s too late,” said Janus, who owns the Surfside Motel where Kolesova was staying.

Unlike many international students working in the area, Kolesova had never ridden a bicycle in the Dells until that morning, said her friend and fellow student worker Korab Ukshini, 21, who is from Kosovo.

She had come to the Dells with her boyfriend and another friend, both of them also from Russia, and usually caught a ride in their car.  Ukshini said her inexperience may have played a role in the accident. Or, he said, she may have been tired.

Hess said most local residents know the dangers of the Dells Parkway and “don’t want anything to do with riding a bike” there.

Safety education, equipment needed

Hess said greater use of safety equipment would help avoid serious injury and nighttime crashes, since many students ride after dark.

Although Wisconsin law stipulates that a white headlight and red rear reflector be used at night, a quick survey of roughly 25 bicycles on a rack at the Sandman Motel revealed that none had a headlight, and some were missing reflectors.

Helmets also aren’t in vogue. “I cannot recall ever seeing one of our foreign workers wearing a helmet,” Hess said.

Webb, the Lake Delton village board president, said more education could boost safety, and he suggested a licensing course for bicycle operators. Although no specific proposal is in the works, Webb said he hopes the village board will address bicycle safety this fall.

Anderson, Wisconsin Dells police chief, said he may ramp up enforcement of local bicycling laws. The high cost of tickets, typically $175.30, could prompt more compliance, he said.

Hess said he doesn’t like to write tickets,  but hefty fines may be the only way to get students’ attention. He called the number of crashes involving international students “heart breaking.”

The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with its partners — Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio and the UW-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication — and other news media. The Wisconsin Dells Events newspaper contributed to this report. Alec Luhn can be reached at aluhn@wisconsinwatch.org.

Victoria, an undocumented immigrant, works at a dairy farm east of La Crosse -- and gets there by driving, although she lacks a license. WCIJ/Robert Gutsche Jr.

By Andy Szal and Jacob Kushner

Drivers beware: There’s a woman driving a stretch of Interstate 90 between Sparta and Tomah — without a license or any training about Wisconsin’s traffic laws.

Her name is Victoria. She’s a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico who works on a Tomah dairy farm with other undocumented immigrants whom  she says “all understand our boss through signals” because of language barriers.

Victoria, who arrived in Wisconsin 13 months ago, hasn’t taken any drivers’ training in the United States because Wisconsin law prohibits her from obtaining a license. She says she hasn’t had any run-ins with police, but requested that her last name be withheld out of fear she might be pursued as an illegal immigrant.

She is among a growing number of illegal immigrants who are finding work on Wisconsin dairy farms, located in rural areas where the only way to get to work is by car.

Immigrants now account for about 40 percent of the state’s dairy labor force, up from just 5 percent a decade ago, according to a 2009 study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.

These 5,000 immigrants have become a critical part of the state’s signature industry at the same time that some are calling for a greater crackdown on undocumented immigrants. While there are no estimates on how many of Wisconsin’s immigrant dairy workers are here illegally, federal surveys have estimated that half of all immigrant crop workers nationwide lack immigration papers.

The debate over undocumented immigrants spilled into the state budget this summer as lawmakers debated a proposal that would have allowed them to get licensed.

The measure, backed by some dairy farmers and law-enforcement officers, would have reversed part of a 2005 state law passed to comply with the federal Real ID Act, which required applicants for a driver’s license to submit proof of citizenship or legal resident status.

Opponents argue Wisconsin shouldn’t be in the business of ignoring state and federal immigration laws, regardless of the limitations on state agriculture and driving enforcement.

“There’s a tendency to sometimes accept the fact that we have people here breaking the law,” said state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia.

Still, the measure’s failure came as a blow to immigrant advocacy groups, which have long petitioned for the right of undocumented immigrants to drive legally in the state.

“It shows that neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party in Wisconsin or nationally have the intention to fix the problems that are most urgent to our people,” said Alex Gillis, co-founder of the Madison immigration rights group Immigrant Workers’ Union.

No one knows how many undocumented immigrants are driving without licenses in Wisconsin. But state Department of Transportation data show that after the law requiring applicants to submit proof of legal residence took effect in 2007, the number of people taking the Spanish-language version of the road skills knowledge test plummeted 91 percent — from 42,500 in 2006 to fewer than 4,000 in 2008. The number of applicants taking the English version of the test also declined during the period, but by just 23 percent.

Patrick Fernan, the agency’s operations manager, acknowledged the possibility that the decrease represents a drop in the number of undocumented Hispanic immigrants applying for licenses, but cautioned it’s impossible to say for sure.

Driving a necessity for many immigrant agricultural workers

According to a 2008 study by Paul Dyk, a livestock agent at University of Wisconsin-Extension in Fond du Lac County, 78 percent of Hispanic workers at Eastern Wisconsin dairy farms arrive at work in their own car, but only 44 percent of Hispanic dairy workers have a driver’s license.

Mario Garcia, youth coordinator at the Madison-based nonprofit agency Centro Hispano, says driving legally in Wisconsin has become impossible for many of the state’s agricultural immigrant workers since the federal government passed the Real ID Act. The 2005 federal law was crafted to shore up the security of the state driver’s licenses, although deadlines for compliance have been pushed back amid complaints from states about its requirements and costs.

Garcia said the inability of immigrant workers to drive legally makes Wisconsin roads dangerous for all.

That was one reason a number of law enforcement officials came out in support of the license provision this summer during the budget debate. Police chiefs in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Appleton and Beloit each backed the provision, along with support from chiefs of smaller departments such as Whitewater, Shorewood and Dorchester. The Wisconsin State Troopers Association was also on board.

“Regardless (of whether) these cards are issued or not, undocumented individuals are going to be driving motor vehicles throughout the state,” Whitewater Police Chief James Coan said this summer. “Our traffic safety efforts will be enhanced by providing them with an opportunity to obtain a limited driver’s license.”

Tom Hochstatter, a Milwaukee attorney who practices immigration law, says giving immigrants driver’s licenses would increase safety and reduce the burden on law-enforcement officials to act as de facto immigration enforcement agents.

The potential downside is just that if you’re showing a law enforcement officer your document, then they know that it’s really a second-class driver’s license,” Hochstatter said. “If you have an agenda about immigration, you could end up pursuing your questioning … to a point where you find they are undocumented.”

The budget proposal would have required the limited-use licenses to appear “distinctive” from standard driver’s licenses and would also have required language on the new licenses to stipulate they could be used for driving only. Cardholders could not have used their cards for other identification verification purposes, such as cashing a check or boarding a commercial flight.

The measure also would have stipulated that law enforcement may not press cardholders on their immigration status if the limited-use license was presented for its intended purpose.

Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s office indicated he would be opposed to the bill’s provision on checking immigration status “to the extent these proposals limit the ability of law enforcement to work together at the federal, state and local levels.”

Debate in the state budget

The governor did not include the provision on driver’s licenses in the original budget for the 2009-11 biennium that he proposed in February. But state Rep. Pedro Colón of Milwaukee persuaded fellow Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee to add the measure during its deliberations on the budget.

The Assembly then approved the measure in its version of the budget.

Under Colón’s proposal, drivers unable to prove their legal residence could obtain a limited license provided that some key conditions were met, including establishing Wisconsin residency, providing proof of identity, being ineligible for a Social Security number and passing all relevant driving tests.

Colón said undocumented immigrants “were just in a panic. … They couldn’t go to work, they couldn’t go to the store,” and the issue was critical to his constituents.

At a December meeting of the Dairy Business Association, a group of large dairy farm owners, Colón told farm owners that the right to a driver’s license represents “the most basic of what we call the American dream, this basic attainment of what we call happiness.”

“Happiness to people in my district,” he said in a Madison speech, “is going to take grandma to the doctor and not being stopped by a police officer for four hours while they determine your identity because there is no way for you to get a driver’s license.”

Vos, a fellow member of the Joint Finance Committee, introduced a motion to eliminate the license provision during debate over the Department of Transportation budget.

“The entire idea … flies in the face of what common sense should be,” Vos said of the proposal, arguing that both dairy farm employers and potentially undocumented employees should be facing stiff state and federal penalties rather than being allotted a loophole in the state’s driving laws.

With Democrats in the majority in both houses, Republican opposition wasn’t enough to derail Colón’s proposal. Once the budget moved onto the Senate, however, some Democrats expressed concern about the measure, citing their constituents’ opposition.

Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, told a constituent in an e-mail that he was “able to convince” his caucus to drop the driver’s license provision. He represents a sizable Latino population and became the subject of intense scrutiny from the immigration advocacy group Voces de la Frontera.

But Carpenter was not swayed by the effort from law enforcement, labor groups and religious organizations, noting this summer that 90 percent of his constituents who had contacted his office were opposed to the measure.

Carpenter was also unhappy the provision was stuck into the budget during late-night deliberations and without a public hearing.
“I wasn’t the only one who had concerns,” Carpenter said of his discussions with fellow Democrats in the state Senate.

Colón said federal legislation left room for states to address the problem of undocumented drivers in the Real ID Act, and his staff analyzed two states that have implemented similar laws — Utah and Tennessee.

Tennessee, however, suspended its two-tier license program after the state found undocumented immigrants from neighboring states were attempting to acquire the licenses. Before the suspension of the program, the National Immigration Law Center estimated that Tennessee issued some 51,000 driving certificates to citizens who could not authenticate their legal status.

Vos said that while the public generally is not comfortable condoning what is seen as illegal activity, the economic issues surrounding the state and the country could also color voters’ views on immigration issues.

If the unemployment rate stays at current levels heading into the 2010 election season, Vos asked, “Will they be angry that you’re giving benefits to people here illegally?”

State fix likely to depend on Washington

Lawmakers on both sides of the driver’s license issue are united in one aspect: The Wisconsin Legislature shouldn’t be in the position of dictating immigration policy.

For now, Colón says he has no plans to reintroduce the plan as a stand-alone bill. In addition to the already difficult path it faces in the Legislature, Colón believes federal lawmakers are ready to make the state’s job easier by reforming how the nation deals with illegal immigrants.

“As a legislator in Wisconsin, I don’t want to be messing in immigration law,” Colón said, adding that federal lawmakers forced his hand with the mandates in the Real ID Act.

Vos acknowledged that he doesn’t have a say in the ultimate answer on immigration because, “I’m not in Congress.”

Andy Szal is a reporter for WisPolitics.com. Jacob Kushner is a reporter for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org). The two organizations collaborated on this report for Dairyland Diversity, an ongoing project with The Country Today newspaper examining how immigration is reshaping Wisconsin’s dairy industry.

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