Wauwatosa committee adopts new traffic-calming guidelines, outlines reckless-driving mitigation work

The Wauwatosa City Transportation Affairs Committee voted 6-0 to approve revised neighborhood traffic-calming guidelines and heard a staff briefing on reckless-driving mitigation and related projects funded by the city's vehicle registration fee.

The new policy replaces the prior neighborhood-funded approach and directs city staff to administer a data-driven program funded primarily by the vehicle registration fee. Mike May, traffic engineer, told the committee the revised packet shortens the prior 40-page policy to about 15 pages and is designed to be easier for residents and staff to use. "All people are entitled to safe travel, and death and serious injury are excessive and unacceptable," May said, explaining the rationale for the program's focus on speed, excessive speed and crash history.

Committee members said the policy should limit political influence in project selection. The mayor urged adopting an objective policy and letting staff follow it, arguing that a standard policy avoids "pitting neighborhood against neighborhood." Alder Lewis moved approval; Alder Foley seconded. The motion passed 6-0.

Why it matters: the policy changes how Wauwatosa prioritizes and pays for neighborhood traffic-calming projects. Instead of requiring neighborhoods to fund targeted improvements, the city will use the vehicle registration fee to allocate money to the highest-ranked locations across the city.

How the program will work: anyone may submit an application for traffic calming; applicants must provide contact information to act as a sponsor. Staff will screen requests against minimum qualifications and, if met, collect speed and crash data. Eligible requests are scored once per year using a points system that weighs 85th-percentile speed, the share of vehicles exceeding the posted limit, crash severity and exposure measures such as daily traffic volume and proximity to schools or parks. May explained key thresholds: an 85th-percentile speed roughly 6 mph or more over the posted limit can qualify a location; 10% or more excessive-speed readings (speed > limit + 10 mph) gives additional points; at least one crash in the prior three years that traffic calming would address also qualifies a request.

Scoring and prioritization: the draft assigns points for speed (three points per mile-per-hour over a baseline), excessive-speed share, crash severity (including a high 25-point award for a crash involving a pedestrian, bicyclist, scooter, serious injury or fatality), traffic volume (1 point per 100 vehicles per day), links to Safe Routes to School or Greenway routes (5 points each), absence of continuous pedestrian accommodations (5 points), and a 0'0 engineering-discretion pool of up to 10 points to recognize cost efficiencies or bundled work. Requests remain on the annual ranking for up to three calendar years; applicants will be contacted before they are removed.

Funding and implementation: staff said the primary funding source will be the city's vehicle registration fee. Committee discussion cited two estimates: one comment recalled roughly $425,000 annually; staff later referenced a $15 fee times about 32,000 vehicles, which amounts to about $480,000 a year. Committee members emphasized the fee will support both traffic-calming projects and broader reckless-driving and roadway maintenance work; the split between those uses will be adjusted over time based on demand and project need.

Examples and near-term projects: staff identified priority locations under review, including Grantosa Parkway (a cross-jurisdictional corridor that will require coordination with the City of Milwaukee), several local intersections with repeated angle crashes (Ludington/Stickney), Lloyd/70th (noted as a top crash location where curb extensions are being considered), and corridor work on Center Street near schools. Temporary measures and quick-build interventions were discussed for urgent locations, including improved crosswalk surfacing, delineators to replace barrels on Glenview/Portland, squaring a crosswalk and moving a rapid-flashing beacon at Wauwatosa and Wright, and a planned walking audit on North Avenue from 60th to 70th to identify quick-build safety fixes.

Coordination and appeals: staff said larger projects would follow the capital improvement process or require intergovernmental coordination (for example, work on state or county-owned roadways requires additional approvals). The policy establishes an internal appeal process to the public works director and, if requested, to the Board of Public Works; staff agreed to clarify what aspects of scoring are appealable and to add a 30-day window for appeals.

Next steps: staff will maintain a citywide database of candidate locations, collect data throughout the year, and return to the committee (targeting a May update) with the ranked list and recommended projects tied to the adopted policy. Projects that require larger engineering or coordination will be scheduled through the city's capital program; quick-build items may be implemented the same year if funding and designs permit.

"It's no longer about a neighborhood's ability to pay," May said of the vehicle-fee-funded approach. "It kind of levels the playing field." The committee agreed to allow staff to finalize minor redline edits and return the policy to the Common Council for adoption and to continue discussing reckless-driving mitigation work and project prioritization.