Milwaukee County Receives Funding To Test Road Safety Infrastructure

A speed hump on S. 28th St. Photo by Dave Reid.

Milwaukee County was awarded approximately $220,000 in federal funding for street-safety infrastructure that transportation officials can use to test possible solutions to reckless driving.

The funding can be used for temporary infrastructure like portable speed humps and high-visibility crosswalks. The temporary infrastructure would be used for the next phase of a countywide planning process aimed at curbing reckless driving and improving safety in the county’s transportation network.

“These dollars will target streets and intersections where speeding, reckless driving, and numerous near-miss crashes have occurred for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and motorists,” said Donna Brown-Martin, director of the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT). “This effort will demonstrate how permanent street infrastructure improvements can lead to slower speeds for all roadway users to reduce crashes, prevent serious injuries and fatalities, and create safer streets in Milwaukee County.”

In February, MCDOT was awarded a $800,000 grant to develop a countywide transportation safety plan. Once finished, the plan will include projects in all 19 municipalities that were developed with input from the local residents and governments.

Additionally, once the plan is created, the county and the municipalities will be eligible for federal funding to begin implementing the identified safety projects. The program, called the Safe Streets and Roads for All Program, was created through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and it has approximately $5 billion to disburse through 2026.

“We applaud U.S. DOT’s commitment to help make roads safer and save lives in Wisconsin through this grant program,” Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Craig Thompson said. “These federal discretionary grants can make a real difference in our state and we encourage Wisconsin communities to continue to apply for them.”

The next round of grants will include funding to begin implementing the results of the safety plans — like the county’s — being developed across the country.

“Enhancing the safety of our roads for all who use them is one of the most important issues facing the health and well-being of our community,” said County Executive David Crowley. “Receiving funding for these street improvements is critical to ensuring our roads are safer and more accessible throughout Milwaukee County.”

In Milwaukee, reckless driving will be given particular attention in the planning process. When MCDOT began looking for a consultant to help it develop the plan, project materials noted, “Reckless driving has reached a crisis level [in] Milwaukee County. Like many urban areas in the U.S., injuries and fatalities caused by reckless driving have increased in recent years in Milwaukee.”

MCDOT has taken the lead on the project, and is bringing along with it the county’s municipalities. By rolling all the various projects into one plan, the entire county will be ready when funding for implementation is available.

The agency is employing a “Complete Communities” planning model, which it says includes “an integrated approach to transportation and land use planning and community design that meets the needs of people of all ages, abilities, ethnicities, and income levels.”

MCDOT recently completed a summer-long effort called the Safe Streets Roadshow to gather public input from residents around the county on reckless driving and transportation safety.