TOWN OF SEVASTOPOL – Jay Walters likes walking and riding his bicycle on the very scenic drive where he lives in Door County.
Bay Shore Drive winds through woods as it follows the shore of the bay of Green Bay for about 13 miles between Sturgeon Bay and the Town of Egg Harbor. It is lined with a fair amount of homes and resorts, but it’s also a well-known and heavily traveled route and a county highway (County B) to boot.
Walters said he found numerous drivers exceeding the posted speed limits of 35 mph or 45 mph – some excessively so – as he was out biking or walking.
He brought those concerns to some local officials over the past couple years, but he said no actions were taken.
So he – and a bunch of fellow residents along the route – are trying to do something about it themselves.
Walters and fellow Bay Shore Drive resident Denise Hubbard formed the Neighbors for a Safe Bay Shore Drive group in October 2025. They gave a presentation May 19 at George K. Pinney County Park that not only served as a media event but also an informational session and recruiting drive for the 30 or so citizens in attendance.
“Bay Shore Drive is a shared scenic bypass road with a neighborhood feel,” Walters said during his presentation. “And even though it is a county road, it has a large pedestrian presence and always will. We want to keep it this way.”
Since its formation by Walters and Hubbard seven months ago, the grassroots group was up to about 60 members heading into the event, and Walters told the Advocate the day after that another 12 people signed up at the event.
The group is working in collaboration with the Door County Sheriff’s Office, Door County Highway Department, Door County Public Health, Destination Door County, the Bay Shore Property Owners Association and Wiessinger Consulting LLC, a traffic safety consulting firm based in DeForest. Town of Egg Harbor Chair Steve Schopf was on hand to express support for the effort as well.
“This is unique because it’s proactive,” Wiessinger Consulting owner Randy Wiessinger said. “Other communities wait until there’s crash data. The No. 1 way to increase safety is community awareness and getting people to know how dangerous it is.”
“The group has taken a proactive approach to making the road safer,” Door County Highway Commissioner Thad Ash said. “It’s a beautiful scenic roadway with a huge volume of cars, bikers and walkers, and it’s only going to get heavier.”
‘No one was doing anything about it’
Walters and his wife moved to their home on Bay Shore Drive about four and a half years ago, in the fall of 2021, and he said they became concerned with the way drivers were driving on that road almost immediately.
“My wife and I are both bikers, walkers, we walk our dogs,” he said to the Advocate. “[Concern] came to me pretty quickly. We saw excessive speeds, tailgating, passing in no-passing zones. We realized right way we got a big problem, but no one was doing anything about it.”
After his concerns were left alone by the local officials with who he talked, he decided to work on the issue at the grassroots level. Besides forming Neighbors for a Safe Bay Shore Drive with Hubbard last fall, last summer he also bought a radar sign, one of those electronic signs at the side of the road that show the speeds of approaching vehicles, and had it installed by the highway department along the road. The sign cost $4,000 and the county’s installation fee was $300.
Walters said data collected from the radar signs and guns showed 70% to 75% of all drivers speed at least a little on Bay Shore, but 35% exceeded the limits by 5 mph or more. Several vehicles have been clocked in the 60-to-90 mph range and the top speed recorded thus far was 131 mph. Ash said during the event a study showed that most of the drivers who exceed speed limits on Bay Shore are residents, not visitors.
Improving safety for pedestrians and drivers
Walters said the group’s goal is to get drivers on Bay Shore to obey the 35 mph and 45 mph speed limits, all for better safety for those on foot or bike.
“Let me be clear about what this is not,” he said during the event. “This is not a posted speed limit reduction campaign. Rather, we want drivers to drive at the currently posted speed limits. It is not a speed trap initiative, and it is not anti-driver or anti-business. Our goal is safety, so families, visitors and residents can move around Door County and enjoy all that it has to offer.
“We urge the community and public officials to take these safety concerns seriously.”
Walters said three prongs exist to the initiative: Improved community awareness of the drive’s speed limits and use by pedestrians and cyclists; increased enforcement of the speed limits; and use of what are called “traffic calming” measures, such as the radar signs, more speed limit signs (as a reminder) and signs asking drivers to mind their speeds.
As of the time of the presentation, three radar signs have been erected on Bay Shore. Along with Walters’, another was privately purchased and the third was bought by the group. Two other residents also own handheld radar guns and use them to observe drivers on the road.
Bright yellow “Please Slow Down” signs were available at the event for residents to take and place on the roadside, joining a number of them already on the road. Walters said the sheriff’s department has agreed to increased patrols for more enforcement of the limiits, and a social media campaign called “Slow the Pace, Enjoy the Place” is being launched.
Ash noted during his talk that the road work currently taking place on Bay Shore between the Sturgeon Bay city limit and North Shoreside Circle should help a bit with pedestrian and cyclist safety. The road has bike lanes on either side but they’re very narrow, about one person wide, but the work will see the width of the vehicle lanes narrowed slightly, to 10 feet, and the width of the walker/bike lanes expanded to 4 feet.
He also pointed out that there’s more to improved safety on the road than just speed limits. He said drivers should make sure to give pedestrians and bikers a lane’s worth of room when passing them if possible, and he added that walkers and bikers should wear easily visible clothing, with flashing lights for bikers, and those in groups of two or more should be single-file and not abreast of each other when vehicular traffic approaches.
“Everybody has a part in road safety,” Ash said.
Walters emphasized to the Advocate that it’s important to him and the group to make use of multiple tools to help safety on Bay Shore instead of relying solely on one tool, such as turning the road into a speed trap. He compared the situation to a southeastern Wisconsin village infamous among drivers for its reputation for extremely stringent speed limit enforcement.
“Rosendale, we don’t wanna be like that,” he said.
“Our vision is simple – to make Bay Shore Drive, and the larger Door County, a premier example of road safety for pedestrians, drivers, children, pets and wildlife. This effort is proactive and prevention-focused. This is a public health concern. And it emphasizes safety and compliance with existing posted speeds.”
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@usatodayco.com.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Bay Shore Drive residents in Door County work together to slow drivers
Reporting by Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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