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The redevelopment of public space is at the heart of the City of Milwaukee’s Vision Zero project, which aims to reduce the number of traffic deaths to zero throughout its urban area by 2037. This ambitious program requires numerous investments and a public awareness program.
The city of Milwaukee, United States, adopted the program Vision Zerowhich aims to limit the most serious accidents, especially those linked to human errors.
The very first lever concerned is speed. According to the instigators of this program, it plays a fundamental role in the severity of road accidents. If a person hit by a motorist traveling at 20 km/h has a 90% chance of surviving, this statistic drops to 60% at 30 km/h, etc. Priority must therefore be given to reducing speed, through the development of safer streets and the establishment of zones limited to 30 km/h in residential areas.
To make the streets safer, structures will have to be adapted so that it is complicated to be speeding. This will involve, for example, reducing the width of certain traffic lanes. Conversely, these same streets should encourage walking and cycling. This requires the construction of protected cycle paths but also wide sidewalks, to encourage the movement of strollers or even wheelchairs, and safer pedestrian crossings. Signs and traffic lights will need to be even more visible in the future.
Regarding awareness of the risks associated with dangerous driving, comprehensive training will be provided to all students in the city’s public establishments. Prevention campaigns will also be displayed everywhere. The Vision Zero plan also calls for installing more speed enforcement devices and more systematically punishing dangerous behavior, such as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as well as distracted driving, when we phone while driving, for example.
The objective is to create a road environment that is as healthy as possible and which minimizes the risk of accidents caused by human error. The investment, both financial and human, promises to be significant, but with this policy, Milwaukee is taking the example of what is already being done in many large European cities, such as Amsterdam, Milan or Paris.