MILWAUKEE — It's been nearly a month since the speed limit along Prospect Avenue on Milwaukee's East Side dropped from 30 miles per hour to 25. And if you travel that stretch you've likely noticed new digital speed feedback signs alerting drivers about the change, and how fast they're driving.
TMJ4's Project Drive Safer team is taking a deeper look at some of the eye-popping speeds that have been captured.
A digital sign, displaying how fast drivers are going, first appeared outside of Saint John's on the Lake in late May. That location, along the 1800 block of Prospect Avenue, was intentional. A resident at St. John's was hit and killed by a driver last September while trying to cross the street.
A records request filed with the Milwaukee Police Department reveals that between May 25 and Aug. 11, 258 drivers were recorded going at least 10 miles over Prospect's speed limit at the time — which was 30 miles per hour.
Nine drivers were clocked at more than 70 miles per hour.
By mid-August, signs displaying Prospect's new speed limit, 25 miles per hour, were posted and the Milwaukee Police Department says drivers should expect enforcement.
"It's really needed, it has visibly slowed the traffic down," said Rosalie Easton, who lives at St. John's.
Some who live along Prospect Avenue say they are seeing drivers start to slow down and they attribute that to the combination of the new, lower speed limit and the digital signs.
"It's an improvement over the feeling I used to get, of living on a racetrack," added Easton.
She hopes to see more improvements aimed at protecting pedestrians on Prospect Ave. like the addition of yellow flashing lights at crosswalks, something she's seen elsewhere in the city.
On the surface you might assume the digital speed boards are simply used to draw attention to how fast you're driving — but MPD says they are a tool, helping the department respond to speeding complaints, and deploy resources to appropriate areas.
"There's speeding on my street as well, there are cars that go fast," said Capt. Jeffrey Sunn with MPD. "I don't expect the whole Traffic Safety Unit to come out because I see one car going fast down my block. So, we have to be judicious in our resources and we use those speed boards for that."
Sunn adds that the digital speed feedback signs record speed, time of day and traffic volume but they do not capture any identifying information, such as a license plate number.
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