MILWAUKEE — Since September, Brady Street has been the deadliest road in Milwaukee for pedestrians. The street, well known for its nightlife and vibrancy, has claimed the lives of three people.
On Sept. 11, Arne Japheth, 32, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Milwaukee Police are still searching for a suspect.
Eighteen days later on Sept. 29, a 94-year-old woman was killed while crossing the street near Prospect and Brady. It was 3:45 p.m.
Then, on Oct. 29, Michael Mastroianni, 34, was killed near Water and Brady streets while riding his bike. Police say the driver failed to yield to Mastroianni as he was riding his bike west on Brady Street. Mastroianni was tossed from his bike. Five days later, he was pronounced brain-dead.
Within 48 days, there were as many pedestrian deaths on Brady Street as there were in the previous 21 years combined.
“I don’t want to get hit.”
“I generally park on the side I have to be on so I don’t have to cross that way, specifically.”
“Cars are going too fast on the street and not stopping for anybody.”
“No one should drive here. It should be an area where people should walk.”
These messages were from pedestrians walking on one of the coldest days of the last month. A day you wouldn’t expect to see many pedestrians.
But on Brady Street, all throughout the year in Milwaukee, people choose to traverse by foot. All of whom understand the risk when they step off the curb.
“It’s horrifying,” Ald. Jonathan Brostoff said. “We have got to get some more built environment, safety changes over there. We have to make streets safer and that includes vehicular violence.”
Brostoff just took over the Third District, where Brady Street lies. While he’s only been in office for about two weeks, increasing pedestrian safety on Brady is among his top priorities.
According to the Wisconsin Traffic Operations Safety Lab (TOPS), Brady Street has seen a major uptick in crashes since 2017. With data going back to 2001, five of the six pedestrian deaths on Brady Street occurred after 2017. In that 21-year period, there have been 113 crashes resulting in some sort of injury. But since 2017, there have been 69 injury crashes, accounting for 61.1 percent of the total injury crashes since 2001.
Then, there are the crashes where no one was hurt, only property. TOPS only has data since 2020, showing 101 crashes on the stretch of Brady Street. Yes, no one was hurt, but according to Robert Schneider, an Urban Planning professor at UWM, the potential is there.
“Every additional car is, to some extent, an additional risk that pedestrians are going to be facing when they’re crossing the street,” Schneider said.
Schneider talked to the I-Team in November to talk about a recent study he conducted to identify the deadliest pedestrian hotspots in the country. No where in Wisconsin cracked the list of the top 60 hotspots, but Schneider pointed out there are roads here with similarities to those in other parts of the country.
Though no one was hurt or killed in those 101 crashes since 2020, Schneider says it shows just how dangerous Brady Street could be if those vehicles had hit pedestrians or bicyclists or if the drivers had been going faster when the crash occurred.”
“If you think about a street just lined with people,” Schneider explained. “Then, people crossing it all times of the day, large numbers, then mixing in a decently high number of cars. You are introducing the risk of fatalities.”
In September, after Japheth was killed, conversations were sparked about pedestrianizing Brady Street, which would make it pedestrian only.
“I think all of it speaks to the fact that we, as a society, need to also reorient ourselves and think about how we’re going to prioritize public safety and safer streets and calm traffic to make it a better place for pedestrians and bikers,” Brostoff said.
While less than two months have passed since the first of the three pedestrian deaths, much has changed in the City of Milwaukee. The weather has changed drastically. The Brewers season has ended with the Bucks season just beginning. The holiday season is just getting underway.
But no progress on pedestrianizing Brady.
“We’re going through the Request for Proposal (RFP) round of that right now,” Brostoff said. “There are a couple of different firms who have expertise in all of the subject areas that we need to get the information.”
Once a firm is chosen, Brostoff says, there will be time for public input to hear from the community. Then, creating a plan to move forward with positive changes to make the street safer with the city trying to figure out how to fund the project as well.
But there the timeline of when pedestrians could start to see change is hazy.
“I cannot say,” Brostoff say. “The price of action may be very great but the price of inaction is incalculable. We have to get moving on this. It’s incredibly crucial and, as a public servant, part of the balance that you have is getting that change done right and also making sure that there is neighborhood participation. But you’re right, every day, that’s a day longer that we need more action.”
