Road Diets Planned for Six City Streets
Lanes will be removed, improving safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists.
The Department of Public Works will use cosmetic changes, most notably paint, to narrow six streets over the coming weeks in an effort to reduce motor vehicle speeds and crashes.
Five of the six streets will have the number of travel lanes reduced from four to two, while another will have the width of the travel lanes reduced.
The move comes as part of Milwaukee’s 2018 Complete Streets resolution that requires DPW to consider the safety of all road users, including pedestrians and bicyclists, in any street design and construction project.
Starting this week with S. 43rd St. from W. Oklahoma Ave. to W. Lincoln Ave., the city will be restriping the streets. Changes include a reduction in travel lanes, as well as new bike lanes, high visibility crosswalks and turning lanes.
Other streets that will be restriped include E. Oklahoma Ave. from S. Clement Ave. to S. Chase Ave., N. Lake Dr. from E. Park Pl. to E. Edgewood Ave., W. Grantosa Dr. from W. Appleton Ave. to N. 68th St. and N. 68th St. from N. Strathmore Ave. to W. Florist Ave. S. Howell Ave. from W. Lincoln Ave. to W. Oklahoma Ave., site of a fatal hit-and-run earlier this year, is already a two-lane street, but will have its travel lanes narrowed and a bike lane added.
The impacted streets primarily pass schools, parks and predominantly residential areas.
The changes, which are spread across the city, will often run to Milwaukee’s municipal border. The Lake Drive changes will largely mirror changes made to the north by Shorewood and Whitefish Bay. The 43rd Street changes will stretch to the city’s border with West Milwaukee at W. Lincoln Ave. The street becomes much wider to the north and is known as Miller Park Way.
Short term lane closures are expected as lanes are reconfigured. The plans do not call for any rehab to the roadway.
In a DPW project sheet, benefits of the project are listed as reduced speeds, fewer crashes, higher rates of yielding to pedestrians and improved conditions for cyclists.
The work is scheduled to be completed by August 31st.
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East Oklahoma Ave. is ripe for a traffic diet. I recall the death of an elderly Milwaukean killed on E. Oklahoma (and Logan) crossing that street with a walker to go to church. The danger is the segment of Oklahoma that borders the southern edge of Humboldt Park. A few years back his death stirred interest in traffic calming there, but the Alderman of the moment let the opportunity slip from his hands. This return to the scene is most welcome.
From Howell to Chase there is no significant visual interruption in the mad dash to beat the red light at Clement. To the south of the park is all residential. Crossing to go into the park is fraught. I’m thankful we may finally be able to power down that race track.
Many more streets in the city need road diets, but this should help to some degree. Keep the road narrowing coming, ideally with physical narrowing (curb extensions, bump outs, etc), as restriping may stop some drivers from using the former lanes, but there still will remain the completely criminal morons who will drive anywhere their motorized deathmobiles will go. We have already seen how they will even drive through physical delineators, requiring the city to put up cement Jersey barriers to prevent vehicular access (see protected bike lanes on North and Locust).