MILWAUKEE — The Hopcast, now in its 21st episode, is a rolling conversation about moving Milwaukee forward.
On the latest edition, TMJ4 News was invited along for the ride.
News director Tim Vetscher and anchor Steve Chamraz joined Jerrel Kruschke, the city's commissioner of public works.
The guy keeping the conversation on track was the Hopcast's host, Jeff Sherman.
It began with a general conversation about the state of reckless driving in Milwaukee, and the reasons TMJ4 News launched Project: Drive Safer.
Tim Vetscher said choosing this topic for an in-depth look was easy, given the pervasiveness of the problem.
"The driving behavior I see on my drive, on my commute, is and has been shocking," he said.
The group also discussed the changes to drivers' education.
That includes the end of universal driver's ed, something that stopped in Wisconsin 20 years ago.
"I think a lot of people don't realize driver's ed isn't in all the schools anymore," Jeff Sherman said.
More recently, we have seen the end of a teenage rite of passage.
The mandatory "road test" before you get a license has now become optional.
"A parent can opt their child out of the road test in Wisconsin. Why would you do that," Chamraz asked.
Commissioner Kruschke called out something else we have reported on extensively: fast moves by the city to slow down traffic on notorious streets like Capitol Drive.
"We're trying to do things pretty quickly. If you've seen on Capitol Drive or on Oklahoma or in Humboldt Park. We're doing what are called pinned-on bump outs. It's making those intersections a little more uncomfortable for cars to go through and shortening that path for a pedestrian to cross," he said.
The conversation then turned to the changes we saw out the window and the investment Milwaukee has made to create safer streets.
"The changes we're making are sometimes a little more expensive, but what's the expense of someone's human life," Kruschke asked.
"We have like $250 million in projects coming up in the next five years. In all of them, is putting a complete street mindset behind it, so we're trying to hit it from every angle."
A strategy a lot like Project Drive Safer: coming at the problem from multiple directions and hoping the collective effort sticks.
"We did a lot of things with good intentions over the years, and there were always unintended consequences to the best intentions. From the way our cities are designed, to the way the justice system handles things - we did not get here overnight," said Chamraz during the podcast.
"There are so many decisions made over decades that need to be addressed, one at a time. We're just pealing back the onion to see all those different layers, and hopefully the people responsible for each part of it can address that part and we can move the ball forward," said Chamraz, who has filed a number of Project: Drive Safer stories.
TMJ4's Project: Drive Safer is a commitment to covering one of our region's most pressing issues: reckless driving. Email us at projectdrivesafer@tmj4.com today with your story ideas and comments.
Check out Episode 21 of Hopcast on YouTube below:
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