Milwaukee officials want residents to weigh in on the Vision Zero Action Plan, which outlines specific strategic actions to decrease reckless driving and increase safety on the city’s streets.

“This is a chance for residents to let us know whether we got this right,” said Jessica Wineberg, policy director for the Vision Zero initiative in Milwaukee. “This plan is the end of a years-long process of collecting input to learn from residents and others about what type of actions they wanted to see.”

Vision Zero Action Plan

Vision Zero is Milwaukee’s plan to eliminate driving deaths by 2037. Milwaukee has been plagued for years by reckless driving-related deaths and injuries and unsafe driving in general.

Strategies to reduce traffic injuries and deaths include engineering changes that promote safety by reducing speed, awareness campaigns and other traffic-calming measures.

“People are seeing these transformational street designs that emphasize safety over speed,” Wineberg said. “Traffic calming generally reduces speeding by about 40 percent.”

Initially, when changes were rolled out without much information shared with the public, some residents expressed frustration over the installation of traffic-calming poles, raised curbs, roundabouts and other changes that slowed traffic on many of Milwaukee’s busiest and most dangerous streets.

Residents are getting more accustomed to the constant changes. A new traffic safety improvement project by the city is being planned for Hopkins Street between West Locust and North 35th streets on the city’s North Side.

Several organizations, including the Dominican Center for Women and Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, worked with the city to host public meetings to discuss designs for protected bike lanes there.

Jerusa Johnson, a community organizer for Dominican Center, said residents said they wanted the bike lanes to be accompanied by other improvements to the area.

“If you’re going to put a bike lane in, it would make sense to do the repairs to the whole street. It’s in bad shape,” Johnson said.  

Construction on the Hopkins project is scheduled to begin in 2026.

Reckless driving a top concern, mayor says

Mayor Cavalier Johnson says all the changes have moved the city in the right direction. 

“In the last full year, Milwaukee saw an 8% decline in the number of traffic fatalities,” Johnson said. “We’re headed in the right direction, yet it is clear significantly more work must be done.”

He said reckless driving remains a top concern among residents, and that Vision Zero is proof that the city remains committed to developing new approaches and other responses to stop reckless driving.

Survey and public meetings

The public has several opportunities to provide feedback on the Vision Zero Action Plan. One is to take a survey that asks residents how they’ve been impacted by traffic safety and which parts of the plan they want to see prioritized.

Among the options are to focus on the most dangerous streets; support accountability in the justice system with a focus on prevention; and to create vibrant, people-centered spaces.

So far, Wineberg said, feedback from residents indicates strong support for the engineering changes and a need for more accountability with the justice system.

Accountability for bad driving

The number of traffic citations issued in the city dropped from  nearly 12,300 in 2023 to around 8,500 in 2024, a 31% decrease, according to Milwaukee Police Department data.   

Wineberg said the roadway changes are not extensive enough yet to account for a drop in speeding that would account for a drop in citations.

“The traffic safety unit with the police has had staffing issues,” she said.

Still, she added, the bigger priority is to determine the appropriate amount of enforcement and how the city can support that in an equitable way. 

Another potential strategy the city wants more feedback from residents on is whether to pursue a change in state law to allow for the use of automated traffic cameras in Milwaukee.

“That way we don’t have to rely on police for additional enforcement,” Wineberg said.

Long way to go

Johnson of the Dominican Center said she loves the idea of having safe streets for residents to travel on. But that reckless driving remains a major problem.

“I do hope eventually that things will get better,” she said.

Wineberg is optimistic that Vision Zero is working, but knows there’s still too much recklessness on Milwaukee roads.  She hopes the community is willing to help make changes before more lives are lost.

“I’ve talked to families who have lost loved ones in traffic crashes, and their losses are horrible,” she said. “We can stop that by slowing down on our own. A little bit of extra time is worth someone’s life.”

Give the city your feedback

Residents can also share their views by attending an open house from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22 at Mitchell Street Library, 906 W. Mitchell St. Spanish translation will be provided.