MILWAUKEE — There are new options to make Brady Street safer for pedestrians.
The city showed plans to slow traffic on parts of the popular East Side road or even block cars altogether at a Monday night meeting at St. Hedwig’s Church.
A full house of packed pews was filled with raised hands asking questions about the potential changes coming to the stretch of Brady Street between Humboldt and Farwell Avenues.
The area's Business Improvement District released a study in conjunction with contracted engineering and architecture firms and alongside the city’s Department of Public Works, offering up four potential solutions with the goal of making the street safer for pedestrians.
Options 1 and 2 keep Brady Street open to all forms of traffic and add calming measures like speed tables and curb extensions.
Options 3 and 4 close off the street to cars for two to four blocks making it a pedestrian-only section. Emergency vehicles, deliveries, and public transit would still be allowed.
The surrounding community and its residents showed up in numbers to Tuesday night’s meeting. Even 30 minutes after the scheduled ending, residents and representatives were still in the house, answering and asking questions about the busy street.
Karin and Stephen Bachhuber were in attendance and live steps away from Brady Street. They say they prefer one of the options completely pedestrianizing the road.
“If you go to Europe, all the city centers are pedestrian zones now. So, how did they manage that?” said Karin Bachhuber.
Many others in the crowd spoke against a pedestrian-only zone citing concerns for businesses and traffic overflow onto smaller streets.
Stephen Bachhuber says whether you're for or against keeping cars on Brady, “something needs to be done. Soon. Because it is a situation that’s on tenterhooks right now.”
With planning in such early stages, officials say it will likely be years before any real work gets done on these proposals.
In the meantime, the Department of Public Works will be working to repaint crosswalks and add concrete bollards to parts of the street to make it safer for pedestrians as plans move forward.
The Brady Street BID has created a web page dedicated to the pedestrian-first study where you can download the study and leave comments. Click here to visit the new webpage.
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