Just in time for summer, bicycles are now legal in Milwaukee playgrounds
For generations of Milwaukee kids, the city signs were an annoying part of growing up.
Against a white background, they said in bold, black letters: RIDING OF BICYCLES PROHIBITED ON THESE PLAYGROUNDS.
No more.
From now on in Milwaukee, playgrounds will be for playing ... and biking.
The Wisconsin Bike Fed, leaders and students from Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and multiple elected officials will gather on the Milwaukee Academy of Accelerated Learning playground Thursday at 1 p.m. to celebrate the revision of City Ordinance 102-7, which ends the prohibition of bicycles on Milwaukee playgrounds.
The revision of the ordinance, sponsored by Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, was passed unanimously by the Milwaukee Common Council on June 1. According to a news release from the Wisconsin Bike Fed, the revision repealed the decades-old bicycle regulations that previously stated that “No bicycle or electric scooter shall be operated … upon any public school grounds or public playgrounds.”
The Wisconsin Bike Fed — a statewide nonprofit organization committed to educating and advocating for cyclists — brought the request to Dimitrijevic with the support of the City of Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works. The Wisconsin Bike Fed detailed the plan for the revision in the 2021 City of Milwaukee Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan.
“I view it as our first step in decriminalizing laws related to bicycles in the city,” said Michael Anderson, program manager of the Wisconsin Bike Fed. “(These laws) have been in place since at least the ‘60s, and often, these types of laws are precursor laws to discrimination basically passed to give officers an excuse to keep Black kids away from certain spaces.”
MPS Superintendent Keith Posley expressed support for the revision in a letter to Dimitrijevic in May. The Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan also includes funding to create traffic gardens — painted “mock streets” on the playgrounds designed to allow children to practice riding bikes safely away from traffic — at all MPS elementary schools.
Traffic gardens have already been completed at Milwaukee Academy of Accelerated Learning, Clement Avenue School and La Escuela Fratney. More will be under construction over the summer, and every MPS elementary school will have the opportunity to install one using Elementary and Secondary Education Emergency Relief funds, Anderson said.
At each traffic garden, the Wisconsin Bike Fed will replace signs displaying the old city regulations prohibiting cycling with signs featuring QR codes linking community members to instructional videos that teach children how to ride a bike. MPS physical education teachers will also have access to three complete fleets of bikes, including adaptive bikes for students with disabilities, to educate students about cycling.
“We want to build a child-friendly city where everybody has a safe place to play, and parents have a safe place to bring their kids that’s not a parking lot and not the street,” Anderson said. “I’m hopeful that this is an encouragement to keep conversations going about decriminalizing our public spaces and creating more opportunities for safe recreation.”
“We want to build a child-friendly city where everybody has a safe place to play, and parents have a safe place to bring their kids that’s not a parking lot and not the street.” Anderson Program manager, Wisconsin Bike Fed