Milwaukee County Board Of Supervisors Advances Crowley Administration Plan To Combat Reckless Driving

MILWAUKEE – On February 6, 2025, Milwaukee County reached a key milestone in its Vision Zero commitment to combat reckless driving and eliminate traffic deaths by 2037.

At Thursday’s County Board Meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to adopt the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation’s (MCDOT) Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP). The Plan outlines strategies to address safety on Milwaukee County’s 25 Corridors of Concern and paves the way to unlock new federal funding to support these strategies.

“Enhancing the safety of our roads is one of the most important issues facing the health, well-being, and economic vitality of our community. Collaboration and partnership will be key to increasing multimodal safety and reducing reckless driving,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. “This effort will allow my administration to implement a unified strategy for Milwaukee County and our municipal partners to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while improving overall health outcomes for our residents.

I applaud the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors for working with us to support safer neighborhoods, enhance the quality of life for working families, and save lives in Milwaukee County.”

Since 2014, fatal crashes have increased drastically throughout Milwaukee County at a higher rate than a majority of the country. Overall, fatal and serious injury crashes increased 42% in 2020-2022 compared to 2010-2012.

The Comprehensive Safety Action Plan lays out a menu of 522 potential Safety Project Opportunities in Milwaukee County that could reduce fatal and serious injury crashes by 38% on average at the locations where they are implemented, and 18% in the County overall. Potential projects include a wide range of strategies and treatments, such as road diets, slow zones, signal improvements, and intersection daylighting. From this group of 522 potential projects, 142 locations are identified as priority projects.

Adoption of the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan is the next step for Milwaukee County and its 19 municipalities in gaining eligibility to apply for federal grants to fund a selection of the highest priority projects. It also marks the completion of Phase Two of the Complete Communities Transportation Planning Project, MCDOT’s safety initiative to increase multimodal safety and address reckless driving across all Milwaukee County municipalities.

“This is an historic achievement for Milwaukee County, made possible through the leadership, collaboration and commitment of County Executive Crowley, the Board of Supervisors, and our municipal partners,” said MCDOT Director Donna Brown-Martin. “I’m looking forward to what we will continue to accomplish as we work toward our goal of zero traffic fatalities and injuries by 2037.”

County Executive Crowley is anticipated to sign the resolution into law later this month. The Plan will then go to the U.S. Department of Transportation for certification.
MCDOT will initiate Phase Three of the Complete Communities Transportation Planning Project later this month when work begins with the County’s municipal governments to create their own action plans.

About The Complete Communities Transportation Planning Project

In 2023, Milwaukee County launched the Complete Communities Transportation Planning Project, a new safety initiative to increase multimodal safety and address reckless driving across all 19 municipalities in Milwaukee County. As part of this effort, Crowley and MCDOT published the first-ever Transportation Safety Assessment Report in February 2024 to determine which streets should be considered “Corridors of Concern” across Milwaukee County and where resources should be focused to keep drivers, bicyclists, transit riders and pedestrians safe.

In March 2024, Crowley and the Milwaukee Area Safe Streets Taskforce (MASST) released the Motor Vehicle Collision (MVC) Dashboard to advance comprehensive, data-driven solutions to increase safety for all who use local streets and roadways. In addition, Milwaukee County is utilizing federal funding to implement street safety improvements in Greendale, Shorewood, South Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, and West Allis, as well as in partnership with the City of Milwaukee on a critical segment of the 35th Street corridor, to combat reckless driving, calm traffic, prioritize transit and create safer streets for all.

In August 2024, Crowley signed legislation affirming Milwaukee County’s commitment to Vision Zero by the year 2037 in combatting reckless driving, traffic violence, and fatal and serious injury crashes.

More information about Milwaukee County’s efforts to combat reckless driving is available HERE.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.