Ned England Expands Backslide Way Watch To Cover Halloween Night

WAUKESHA — Ned England has spent the better part of two years documenting speeding hospital traffic and a neighbor's Honda from a folding chair on Backslide Way. Starting at 6 p.m. on October 31, he is turning that same setup toward a new subject: trick-or-treaters.

The 70-year-old retiree says he purchased a new outdoor-rated camera rig in September specifically for what he is calling his Halloween observation protocol, a three-hour window of continuous video and radar coverage of foot traffic passing his duplex.

"I'm not out here to ruin anybody's night," England said, adjusting the camera's tripod legs on his driveway apron Tuesday evening. "I'm out here to have good data. Nobody else on this street has good data."

A new line item in an old routine

England's radar gun, previously reserved for clocking cars he believes exceed 25 miles per hour near the hospital access road, will run alongside the camera for the full Halloween shift. He said he does not expect to register any meaningful speeds from pedestrians but wants the equipment running anyway, "for consistency across data sets."

Based on counts from the last four years, which he keeps in a spiral notebook, England is projecting between 65 and 80 children will cross his property line between 6 and 9 p.m. He has set up two folding chairs instead of his usual one to accommodate what he described as "the longer shift."

His son Trevor, who lives in the lower unit with him, said the household has had some internal discussion about the scope of the project.

"It might be a bit excessive for one evening. He's talking about doing a candy-count overlay in post-production."

— Trevor England, Ned's son

Findings headed to the channel

England said he plans to edit the footage into a summary video for his YouTube channel, Nedventuresout, which has 420 subscribers. He estimated the final cut would run between 11 and 14 minutes, shorter than his typical hospital-traffic uploads because, in his words, "kids don't loiter the way sedans do."

He said he will not be handing out candy himself this year so he can remain positioned at the camera for the duration, a decision he called "a necessary safety initiative" rather than a disappointment to trick-or-treaters expecting his usual bowl of fun-size Snickers.

Upstairs tenant Troy England, Ned's son from his first marriage, said he intends to hand out candy from the porch of the upper unit as usual and was unaware his father's project would include him in frame. "I found out when he asked me to wear something with more contrast," Troy said.

Neighbors weigh in

Reaction on Backslide Way has been mixed. Neighbor Carol Spiegelberg, who lives two doors down, said she was told about the project when England stopped by to ask whether her porch light would be on. "He wanted to know for his lighting conditions," she said. "I said yes, same as every year, and he wrote it down."

Another neighbor, who asked not to be named because he said he did not want "a whole thing," said he plans to walk his kids on the opposite side of the street this year, though he conceded England's count has been "weirdly accurate" in past years when compared against his own informal tally.

England said he is not concerned about the attention his project has drawn on the neighborhood's Nextdoor page, where at least one post referred to the plan as "a lot." "They said the same thing about the hospital traffic study," he said. "That data held up."

Findings from the October 31 observation window are expected to post to Nedventuresout by the following weekend, pending what England described as "a reasonable render time."