MILWAUKEE — If you’ve driven through Milwaukee lately, you’ve probably seen plastic poles at several intersections across the city.
The poles, known as bollards, are placed several feet into the roadway in an effort to slow down speeders by narrowing traffic lanes. They also shorten crossing distances for pedestrians.
“It’s amazing to me because when I first saw them, I thought, ‘What’s this?’" said Carole Poth.
Despite initially being skeptical, Poth says she was quickly convinced the cheap traffic calming infrastructure makes a difference outside her church on Center Street.
"They're still driving fast, but it seems to be more relaxed,” she said.
The bollards have become a key component of the Department of Public Works’ efforts to rapidly re-engineer city roads where data shows most crashes occur.
"This type of project is something that's been done in other cities throughout the U.S. and actually around the world, so we wanted to try to do it here in Milwaukee as well to address reckless driving and forward our Vision Zero goals,” said DPW Transportation Planner Marissa Meyer.
Meyer says crews started installing the plastic poles at intersections along corridors in 2020. To date, roughly 80 intersections have been reconfigured since.
“We've done some studies on the effectiveness in Milwaukee and one of the results that we've seen is that excessive speeding over 40 miles per hour, we've seen reductions up to 40 percent,” she said.
The same DPW study found six times as many drivers are yielding to pedestrians at crosswalks where bollards are present.
“What about drivers who are trying to pass on the right, is that possible with these installed at intersections? TMJ4 asked.
"Technically, it is possible to pass on the right with these installed, but it's not going to be a fun experience for you or your car so I wouldn't recommend it,” Mayer said.
DPW says extending elevated concrete curbs into the intersections is more effective at preventing reckless driving because it’s a much larger physical barrier, but plastic poles and street paint are much cheaper and faster to install.
For context, DPW says it can cost up to $160,000 to build full curb extensions on an intersection. That includes pouring pavement and realigning the curbs and sidewalks. The plastic bollard and street paint alternative costs between $10,000 and $35,000 per intersection.
"Because we can't spend that much money on the concrete ones, this is a way of getting at this whole problem,” said Steve O’Connell.
O’Connell is the chairman of the Sherman Park Reckless Driving Task Force.
"The plastic seems to work, I'm not kidding you,” he said.
O’Connell’s a proponent of the quick solution, but he’s also seen the downsides. The bollards can be flatted with one strike of a vehicle and some have already been removed until spring.
"If the Business Improvement District does not have enough money to basically snow shovel around the bump-out then they have to take those out for the winter,” O’Connell said.
D.P.W. says the goal is to keep as many of the posts in year-round as possible, but that requires partnering business districts to shovel the snow that piles up after the plows come through.
"I hope it's just a temporary downside. I hope this is figured out for next winter,” said Poth.
Since the plastic poles and street paint typically only last about three to five years, DPW said they would ideally be replaced with raised concrete curb extensions if the funds are available at that time.
