The City of Milwaukee is hoping to reduce high crash rates on North Water Street. The plans cover a stretch of Water St. from the Marcus Performing Arts Center going north for about a mile. It’s an area with numerous bars, restaurants and theaters that draw a lot of car, foot and bicycle traffic.
Hundreds of people concerned about the accident rate attended a public meeting at MSOE’s campus last week. They heard about the city’s plans to decrease vehicle speeds and support other modes of transportation.
Marylin Mastroianni was there to learn more about the city’s efforts. Two years ago, her son Michael Mastroianni, 34, was riding his bike at the intersection of Brady and Water Street when a car struck and killed him.
"Our son was Mr. Riverwest," Mastroianni said. "He loved teaching children. He attended the Pedestrian and Bike Safety Commission meetings. It’s a tragedy that he became a traffic victim himself."
The project corridor is listed on the city’s bicyclist and pedestrian high injury network due to the high number of past and predicted crashes. Since 2018, there have been 341 crashes and two fatalities along this stretch of Water Street. Those numbers don’t include data from 2020, or the area where Michael Mastroianni died.
"This particular project stops two blocks short of where our son was killed," said Mastroianni. So, we wish this plan went farther and did more."
The city’s meeting was structured in an open house format with dozens of boards on display. As guests moved from board to board, they took turns studying renditions of the street, crash data and the city’s proposed design options, such as narrowing lanes.
Several boards allowed guests like Will Ohm a chance to share their thoughts. I asked Ohm to share what he wrote on a yellow Post-it note.
"I’m writing down what my experience is for walking, biking, driving on Water Street," Ohm said. "Writing my experience, being that it’s generally bad for all three. I’m excited that we are trying out something different."
The city unveiled three design options at the meeting. Design 1 features right-side bus-only lanes with raised protected bike lanes. Design 2 shows a center-running bus corridor, also with raised bike lanes and a narrowed street. Design 3 offers a separated bus corridor.
All are expected to calm traffic by making sidewalks wider and building a bike network throughout downtown. The city will conduct a traffic analysis before choosing a design. These efforts are part of the city’s 2040 Connecting MKE Downtown Plan.
Chad Chrisbaum is the lead engineer of the transportation infrastructure group for the City of Milwaukee. He explained two of the city’s plans for transforming major transit areas: Vision Zero and Complete Streets.
"Vision Zero aims to get to a point where we have zero pedestrian fatalities," Chrisbaum said. "Complete Streets is the vehicle through which we might get there whereby we incorporate as many modes of transportation as we can including bikes, scooters, peds — along with cars obviously — and create a corridor that is safe for all users, not just those that are in vehicles."
After visiting each station, Marylin Mastroianni shared her preferred design choice.
"My husband and I both thought that the first one, number one, gave more protection to bicyclists and pedestrians and would slow down traffic enough and make it actually easier to move through that area," she said.
Mastroianni said in addition to a new street design, she’d like to see harsher penalties for reckless drivers.
"The man who hit our son essentially got hit with a fine and killed a 34-year-old man," she said. "More needs to be done to make the streets safer and to care about the laws that we already have."
At a press conference last month, City Attorney Evan Goyke announced his office would no longer amend or dismiss reckless driving citations. Ultimately, Mastroianni says she feels encouraged that Milwaukee is making safety a priority. The city’s next public meeting for the project is scheduled for spring.
