WisDOT provides $70,000 in federal funding for pedestrian safety task forces in La Crosse, Madison and Milwaukee

To improve pedestrian safety, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is providing  $70,000 in federal funding to local task forces for intensified law enforcement and education efforts in La Crosse, Madison and Milwaukee.

Using high-visibility law enforcement, the pedestrian safety task forces will combine the resources and expertise of the local police departments and the university police departments in the three communities. The Milwaukee Task Force will receive $30,000. Madison will receive $25,000, and La Crosse will receive $15,000.

Last year in Wisconsin, there were 44 pedestrian deaths in traffic crashes, which included one in La Crosse County, three in Dane County and 18 in Milwaukee County.

“The task forces will focus on intersections and other areas of their communities where there are significant pedestrian safety challenges,” says David Pabst, director of the WisDOT Bureau of Transportation Safety. “The pedestrian safety task forces will follow a model for high-visibility enforcement and effective public education that has been successful for other task forces around the state focusing on drunken driving prevention and increasing seat belt use. The goal of every task force is to increase voluntary compliance with traffic safety laws, not to write more tickets. However if voluntary compliance fails, officers will take appropriate enforcement actions.”

Before the pedestrian safety task forces begin deployments later this month, law enforcement officers from La Crosse, Madison and Milwaukee will attend training on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14 and 15, at the UW-Madison Police Department, 1429 Monroe Street, Madison.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.