King Drive
mph on King Drive at West Vienna Avenue — where the speed limit is 25 mph.
Along with making King Drive safer for drivers, as well as cyclists and pedestrians, the changes will allow traffic to operate more smoothly by adding left-turn lanes, Amsden said.
The project will cost $300,000, he said, with 90% of those funds coming from a federal grant.
The same grant will provide cash to pay for similar changes on five other Milwaukee streets: North 27th Street between Capitol Drive and West Atkinson Avenue; North 35th Street, West Townsend to West Congress streets; South 35th Street, West Lakefield Drive to West Lincoln Avenue; South 13th Street, West Layton to West Howard avenues; and West Burleigh Street, North 60th Street to North Sherman Boulevard.
The King Drive project has support from neighborhood residents and business operators, Amsden said.
But people living on nearby North Phillips Avenue and North Second Street are worried the changes might divert traffic to their mostly residential streets, said Ald. Milele Coggs, who represents the area on the Milwaukee Common Council.
Coggs has asked department officials to consider four-way stops at certain intersections, as well as possible speed bumps, to help reduce the possibility of increased speeding.
Those measures will be considered, Amsden said. Department officials believe there will be little impact on side streets because of their narrower width as well as their current stop signs and other traffic controls.
Coggs, a lifelong neighborhood resident, said she’s accustomed to driving on a four-lane King Drive.
But, she said, the data doesn’t lie about the the amount of speeding, and the number of crashes.
“Street calming efforts would help with that,” Coggs said.
Also, businesses benefit if traffic is slowed down and King Drive becomes more walkable, she said.
The project is supported by the Historic King Drive Business Improvement District.
Along with reducing reckless driving, the road diet should encourage more commercial development, said Deshea Agee, district executive director.
“It really should be a bigger benefit for a lot of the businesses,” Agee said. “At the end of the day, it will save lives and it should make the area much more attractive.”
Commercial developments coming to King Drive include ThriveOn King.
That $100 million project will redevelop a historic six-story former Schuster’s department store, 2153 N. King Drive.
ThriveOn King will feature office and community space, anchored by the ThriveOn Collaboration, with Medical College of Wisconsin’s community engagement programs and Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s new headquarters.
The renovated building also will have 77 apartments, with construction starting this spring and finishing in spring 2022.
ThriveOn King developer Royal Capital Group LLC supports the road diet, said Kevin Newell, president and chief executive officer.
“We’re supportive of inclusive and comprehensive efforts to advance measures that will add value to the safety of our neighbors and neighborhoods,” Newell said.
Meanwhile, Agee’s group, which recently expanded its territory, is beginning to work on preliminary plans to add street banners, benches and trash cans in a possible King Drive streetscaping project. “There is a vision of a revitalized key street,” he said.