Wrong Way on E. State St.?

Wrong Way. Not for much longer.

Not for not much longer.  In accordance with the City of Milwaukee’s downtown plan over the past decade streets such as Broadway, and Jackson St. have been converted back to two-way traffic improving connectivity and access for all modes of traffic.  And now, work has begun on the next piece of this plan, the stretch of E. State St. from Van Buren St. to Market St.  Specifically, the new signals along this stretch of the street started showing up this month, and appear to be functional.

Although MGIC raised concerns regarding automobile access to their facility, and some MSOE students and professers are raising concerns over if this benefits pedestrians as much as better signage would, this conversion does in fact have benefits for pedestrians, bicyclists, and automobile traffic.  For pedestrians the changing of E. State St. to two-ways will convert the street from a low grade freeway where automobiles whiz by as if they were chasing down Danica Patrick, to more of a neighborhood local road.  For bicyclists, there is a stretch of new bike lanes in the plan, and no longer will bicyclists be seen riding the wrong way on E. State St. as they will now be able to ride east on the street to get to their destination.  Finally, automobile traffic will be able to go east to the lakefront instead of driving around numerous blocks to head east adding both wasteful congestion, and wasted time.

So the question is, when does Wells St. begin its conversion?