MILWAUKEE — City leaders are calling reckless driving in Milwaukee an epidemic as they work to make the streets safer.
The City-County Carjacking and Reckless Driving Task Force released a robust list of preliminary recommendations. The list included increasing penalties for reckless drivers, adding roundabouts, and "road diets." A road diet may consist of redesigning a street from four lanes to two or three lanes by improving bike accommodations or turn lanes.
"Enforcement and accountability have to be a component of it, but there has to also be other ways is to try and make changes of people's behavior," said Alderman Michael Murphy, chair of the task force.
Murphy pointed to Hawley Road between Vliet and Wisconsin as an example of how a road diet is working.
"We narrowed the roadway that resulted in a 45% reduction in people speeding above 40 mph," said Murphy.
People who live and work nearby Hawley have mixed reviews.
George Voell owns Wonder Bar and says he noticed fewer speeders.
"This small sample area I think it's working. I don't think they can do this all over the city but this experiment I believe is working," said Voell.
Omar Joudeh's family owns the gas station across the street from the bar. He has plenty of stories about reckless drivers speeding through their lot or crashing into their building.
"They put those deterrents in the road but like I mentioned earlier it just causes more road rage for the people who are speeding and don't feel like they should do the speed limit," said Joudeh.
However, both Voell and Joudeh believe more police patrols are key to sparking a real difference in reckless driving.
The task force still needs community input. Meeting dates have yet to be announced. Murphy hopes to have a final list of recommendations to implement by January if not sooner.
