Milwaukee, WI
These People Are Working to Stop Milwaukee’s Reckless Driving Epidemic
Jordan Morales, a member of a involved residents group referred to as the Sherman Park Reckless Driving Fee, is standing on a nook of the intersection of Sherman Boulevard and Burleigh Road, which he says is stricken by harmful driving. He joined the group, which meets repeatedly with metropolis and legislation enforcement officers, after he moved to the neighborhood three years in the past and “instantly seen” the driving issues right here.
“Reckless driving is the No. 1 high quality of life problem in Milwaukee, simply,” Morales says, particularly in Sherman Park. He’s interrupted by a truck that loudly roars by way of the intersection going not less than twice the posted 30 mph velocity restrict. Different issues Morales notes are individuals operating crimson lights, after which he factors out a automobile partaking in an obnoxious and harmful maneuver that’s so widespread it has its personal nickname: the “Milwaukee Slide” It’s when a driver makes use of the flip, parking or – as on this explicit case – a motorcycle lane to zoom forward and move site visitors on the suitable.
“It will get on everybody’s nerves as a result of we’re all ready in line, after which this particular person thinks the foundations of the highway don’t apply to them and so they can skip everybody,” Morales says. “I’d say it’s simply a part of the rotten driving tradition that we’ve got within the metropolis of Milwaukee, and it’s one thing that must be fastened. We’ve let it go for a lot too lengthy.”
“I’ve of us in my district who’ve informed me they’re afraid to cross Capitol Drive to the closest native grocery retailer due to reckless driving.”
-CAVALIER JOHNSON, MAYOR
Somebody who agrees with that’s Mayor Cavalier Johnson. He’s made addressing driving issues one of many three main factors in his to date transient administration, together with shootings and policing. And it’s a problem he’s very conversant in. As a former alderman representing the North Aspect’s 2nd District, he needed to grapple with among the streets that see probably the most reckless driving: 76th, Fond du Lac, Silver Spring, Capitol.
“Capitol Drive might be probably the most infamous avenue within the metropolis for reckless driving,” Johnson says. “I’ve of us in my district or who dwell close by who’ve informed me they’re afraid to cross Capitol Drive to the closest native grocery retailer in our district due to reckless driving.”
Johnson sees a number of causes of the issue.
The statistics bear out what many North Siders already know: Capitol Drive is Milwaukee’s most harmful avenue. A examine of knowledge from 2016-17 by the Division of Public Works confirmed that six out of 10 of the highest intersections with automobile crashes have been alongside that thoroughfare – a complete of 344 crashes in two years, or simply about one each different day – together with the No. 1 intersection, Capitol at Sherman Boulevard. Each Mayor Johnson and Capt. Jeffrey Sunn, who oversees the Site visitors Security Unit, put Capitol on the prime of their record of downside streets.
Final yr, a 17-year-old lady died when the person driving her misplaced management of his automobile on tenth and Capitol and crashed right into a bus shelter, and two 18-year-old males died after they drove a stolen automobile by way of a crimson mild on sixtieth and Capitol and hit one other automobile after which a lightweight pole, amongst different deadly crashes. They have been amongst 47 individuals who died because of reckless driving on Milwaukee streets in 2021 – a horrible toll, however down sharply from a yr earlier, in keeping with information from the Wisconsin Division of Transportation.
In 2020, 70 of the town’s 78 site visitors deaths have been attributed to reckless driving, and a 3rd of the reckless driving deaths occurred on three streets: twenty seventh Road (the deadliest Milwaukee highway, with 12 fatalities), Fond du Lac Avenue and Middle Road. This got here whilst complete crashes dropped 17% from the earlier yr to eight,381 – the speculation being that fewer individuals on the roads throughout the first yr of the pandemic led to extra extreme reckless driving.
“I used to be lucky to have a job so I might afford driver’s ed lessons, however not everybody can, and that doesn’t imply they’re not driving,” Johnson says. He additionally cites the “no-pursuit coverage” that was in place with the Milwaukee Police Division till 2017, which prevented police from chasing a suspect except they knew that they had dedicated a violent felony. That was supposed to cease high-speed chases over stolen vehicles that always led to deadly crashes, however Johnson says it additionally fostered a tradition of lawlessness on the roads. “I’ve heard police say that individuals would velocity by flipping them off as a result of they knew they wouldn’t be pursued,” Johnson says.
A city-county activity pressure with members from the mayor’s workplace, police division, municipal courtroom, well being division and different businesses studied the difficulty for a yr and a half, issuing its findings in June 2020. The report focuses on three key areas within the struggle to curb reckless driving: altering the town’s streetscape, boosting enforcement and accountability, and prevention and training.
Among the many board’s many suggestions have been public consciousness campaigns, wider availability of driver’s ed lessons, elevated reckless driving penalties, and re-engineered roads to gradual site visitors.
Ald. Michael Murphy, the duty pressure’s chair, notes that he adopted up by including a funds modification to “allocate cash in the direction of prevention and training, and created a program the place we distributed grants to 19 neighborhood organizations.”
Johnson says he’ll pursue extra of the committee’s suggestions and provides that his personal plan, which he calls S.T.A.N.D. for Safer Streets, already displays a lot of them. “An all-hands-on-deck strategy to take a stand in opposition to reckless driving shall be my prime precedence,” he mentioned at a December press convention unveiling his plan.
On the enforcement entrance, MPD Chief Jeffrey Norman created a brand new Site visitors Security Unit in winter of 2021, reallocating 20 officers to give attention to reckless driving. A criminal offense analyst assigned to the unit opinions information and citizen complaints to steer its officers to downside areas.
Capt. Jeffrey Sunn, who oversees the unit, says that of their first yr the Site visitors Security Unit issued about 21,500 citations. “Over half these have been dashing violations,” Sunn says, and one other 4,000 or so have been licensing points.
Equally essential is the necessity for secure avenue design, which includes transforming streets with a “highway weight loss plan” or slowing site visitors by narrowing or lowering lanes, switching automobile lanes with bike lanes and pedestrian islands, and creating limitations to cease strikes just like the Milwaukee Slide.
Milwaukee’s reckless driving epidemic is one thing Tracey Dent witnesses nearly each day. He runs a nonprofit referred to as Peace for Change Alliance, nevertheless it’s his part-time work as an Uber driver that has given him a front-row seat to Milwaukee’s harmful streets. Not as soon as however twice, vehicles have blasted by his Honda Accord firing weapons at one different – as soon as at twenty seventh and Middle streets, one other on Fond du Lac Avenue.
Dent was impressed to start out the Voices In opposition to Violence Coalition in 2013 to deal with gun violence. Then, when 7-year-old Londyn Quesada was killed in a success and run by drag racers on North 76th Road in October 2020, musical artists that Dent has labored with mentioned they needed to do one thing.
They got here up with “Over the Restrict,” a hip-hop tune and video produced final yr that they hope will encourage individuals to “suppose twice” about reckless driving, that includes native artists QB Speaks, Mani Imani, Viv Vid and Crysy B. MPD participated within the video, with officers as actors. “Lots of people don’t watch the information or take note of billboards,” Dent says. “The easiest way to succeed in out, particularly to younger individuals, is thru music.”
Such PSA campaigns are a key suggestion of a current native activity pressure on reckless driving. Dent has met with Mayor Cavalier Johnson and different metropolis and legislation enforcement officers to speak about driving issues and doable options.
“As a neighborhood we have to maintain the Milwaukee Police Division and our elected officers extra accountable, communicate up extra,” Dent says. “We additionally want to carry ourselves accountable, which means that if we see one thing, we have to communicate up, name the police. We have to let our elected officers know, ‘We’ve got all these stolen vehicles on this space. Are you able to assist get the police out right here?’”
“Over the Restrict” music video about reckless driving; Video stills through YouTube.
Sunn says such measures have already confirmed to be efficient in some areas. In Riverwest, the Locust Avenue bridge over the Milwaukee River now has bike lanes protected by indicators and concrete partitions. In Washington Heights, on North Avenue between fifty fifth and sixtieth streets, each nook has a semicircle of white and inexperienced plastic rods bolted to the highway to discourage motorists from “sliding” into the bike lanes.
Related preparations of sticks and planters are discovered on twenty seventh Road between Wisconsin and Highland avenues, and on the Hawley Highway bridge over the Menomonee Valley. “Because the planters and sticks have been positioned in that space, taking two journey lanes down to 1, we’ve got seen a drastic lower in accidents alongside that hall,” Sunn says. “That is additionally true alongside North Avenue and Locust Road.” He provides that though there was a current deadly accident on Hawley, “general the numbers from the site visitors sticks alongside that route has helped within the lower of accidents.”
This success ties into a part of Johnson’s plan that he desires to construct on – a name for utilizing tax increment income to enhance streets to extend security for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. “There are a variety [of projects] which can be taking place on the South Aspect, close to the stadium enterprise park, Downtown close to Cathedral Sq. Park and on Water Road, and in my very own former aldermanic district on Capitol and Fond du Lac,” Johnson says. “The investments we make in infrastructure will prioritize people moderately than a sole give attention to transferring automobiles round.”
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