City of Milwaukee Earns $4 Million Grant to Advance Traffic Safety Initiatives

The City of Milwaukee has been awarded a $4 million federal grant to improve traffic safety. The Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program funds initiatives to prevent traffic deaths and serious injuries. Milwaukee is one of eight Wisconsin communities to receive this funding, which is backed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. There is also a $1 million local match requirement for this grant that the City will contribute.

“Roadway safety is a top priority, and I am grateful to President Joe Biden’s administration for this multi-million dollar grant to assist our efforts,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. “We are making significant changes to our streets so that pedestrians, bicyclists, and automobile occupants are safer. This federal Safe Streets grant will advance our work.”

This award will be used by the city for a project named Safe, Welcoming, and Enjoyable Streets to Grow Milwaukee. Milwaukee will incorporate this funding into its Citywide Mobility Plan to meet SS4A Action Plan requirements and develop a Communications Plan to identify effective public engagement strategies. The city will conduct demonstration activities including street design corrections, neighborhood-driven traffic calming, innovative bike infrastructure, and transit improvements using temporary materials such as jersey barriers, modular bus boarding islands, rubber speed humps, and planters.

“The City of Milwaukee is the state’s largest city, and cultural and economic hub,” said Department of Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke. “This grant will help the City further it’s mission to make it safe and convenient for people to walk, bike, take transit, be active and enjoy our streets and public spaces.”

Reckless driving remains a concern across the city with speeding contributing to more than half of roadway deaths in Milwaukee in the last five years. The Safe, Welcoming and Enjoyable Streets to Grow Milwaukee project is a continuation of other recent efforts to tackle this issue such as the City’s commitment to zero traffic deaths by 2037, the adoption of a Complete Streets Policy, the Safe Routes to School Plan and the Mayor’s initiative to have 50 miles of protected bike lanes built or underdevelopment by 2026.

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.