Milwaukee's Locust St., North Ave. bridges will get protected bike lanes — aiding safety and possibly development

We've all seen it — if not done it — while driving on East Locust Street and East North Avenue.

Two-lane roads suddenly widen to four lanes as they approach bridges over the Milwaukee River. And cars just as quickly speed up — only to slow down abruptly when the roads again narrow.

The result: about 350 crashes, with more than 130 injuries, on those two stretches of the roads from 2012 to 2016, according to city officials. The injured include nearly 50 pedestrians and bike riders.

This summer, the city will convert some of those car lanes into protected bike lanes to improve safety by slowing traffic — which also could encourage more nearby commercial development.

"It will slow people down and have people thinking this is a neighborhood, not a freeway," said Kristin Godfrey, East Side Business Improvement District executive director.

"It's important to get people to slow down and see the businesses they might not notice," said Godfrey, whose group focuses on the area centered on East North Avenue, between North Cambridge and North Prospect avenues.

The two-month city project, to begin in mid-June, involves a so-called road diet.

The Department of Public Works will repaint traffic lanes to create one lane in each direction on Locust Street, between North Humboldt Boulevard and North Oakland Avenue, and North Avenue, between North Bremen Street and North Cambridge Avenue.

Currently, those stretches of roads include two lanes in each direction on the bridges and their approaches. The reconfigured lanes will better line up with connected parts of Locust Street and North Avenue, which have one lane in each direction.

The project also will create bike lanes that are protected by posts to keep cars from using them on the Locust Street and North Avenue bridges.

They will be the first "fully separated" bike lanes in Milwaukee, according to the department. (The city in 2011 built a bike lane on Bay Street, in the Bay View neighborhood, which is buffered from traffic by operating on roughly 3 inches of raised asphalt.)

Those changes should stop drivers from suddenly speeding on the bridges, said Ald. Nik Kovac, whose district includes the east side and much of Riverwest.

"People go 50 miles per hour passing each other on the right just so they can slow down to single file when (the street) narrows down," Kovac said.

The car lanes can be reduced from four to two with only minimal effects on traffic flow, say city public works officials.

Such road diets reduce crashes — in part because they curb aggressive speeding, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Focus shifts away from freeways

The four-lane bridges are a legacy from Milwaukee's freeway-building mania during the 1960s, '70s and '80s, said former Mayor John Norquist.

Norquist was a state senator when he helped stop some of those freeways from being built before being elected mayor in 1988.

But that wasn't before a large stretch of Locust Street was widened to four lanes, west of North Holton Street, said Norquist, former president of Congress for the New Urbanism.

That project, which included demolishing houses and commercial buildings, was designed to move traffic faster to the Locust Street/I-43 interchange, he said.

Locust Street also was to be widened east of Holton Street. But that project was dropped in the mid-'80s because of neighborhood opposition, Norquist said.

The conversion of car lanes to protected bike lanes is an inexpensive way to create safer conditions for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians, he said.

And, in some communities, it also can help encourage more commercial development, said Norquist and others.

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One pending project that could benefit from the narrowed lanes is a five-story, 44-unit apartment building proposed for the former Judge's Irish Pub site, 1431 E. North Ave.

The road diet could make the area more walkable for people living in the building, which would overlook the North Avenue bridge's east end, said developer Kalan Haywood.

"I do think slower traffic is always going to be helpful," said Haywood, who plans to begin construction in October.

The road project should help reduce speeding on the North Avenue bridge and its approaches, said Robert Monnat, Mandel Group Inc. chief operating officer.

He said that would be good for people living in Belay apartments, which Mandel Group opened in 2016 at 2240 N. Commerce St., overlooking the bridge's west end.

Meanwhile, work is to begin this spring on a five-story, 55-unit apartment building, with street-level retail space, at 2900 N. Oakland Ave.

That corner site is just east of where East Locust Street narrows from four lanes to two lanes.

Developer Mike Klein doesn't expect the nearby lane changes to affect his apartment building, which is to open in summer 2019. But he does think the road diet will improve safety on the Locust Street bridge.

Narrowed streets and new bike lanes have helped spur commercial development in Milwaukee and other communities, said Dave Schlabowske, Wisconsin Bike Fed executive director.

He cites South 2nd Street, in the Walker's Point area, where new apartments, as well as new restaurants and other businesses, have been opening in recent years.

Another example is West North Avenue, between North 60th and North 76th streets, in Wauwatosa, Schlabowske said.

That street has seen several new restaurants and taverns open in recent years, with two new craft breweries coming this spring and summer.

"It's not a magic wand," Schlabowske said. "But those businesses tend to look for those sort of environments to locate in."

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To be sure, the narrower bridge lanes "might back traffic up a bit" during rush hour, Kovac said.

But the changes will encourage more people to ride bikes, said Kovac and Julie Campoli, a Burlington, Vt.-based urban designer and author.

"Protected bike lanes are a real game changer in terms of increasing the number of riders," said Campoli, citing Minneapolis and other communities as examples.

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In the East Side Business Improvement District, where a lot of restaurant, tavern and shop patrons travel by bike, that's an important factor, Godfrey said.

"We want everyone coming to the neighborhood to feel safe," she said.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.