Wisconsin lawmakers propose new reckless driving prevention legislation

Wisconsin lawmakers proposed new reckless driving prevention legislation

Two state lawmakers unveiled on Wednesday, Aug. 27, a new piece of legislation that will aim to prevent reckless driving by engineering safer roads for Wisconsinites.

MILWAUKEE - Two state lawmakers unveiled on Wednesday, Aug. 27, a new piece of legislation that will aim to prevent reckless driving by engineering safer roads for Wisconsinites.

Traffic-calming legislation

What they're saying:

The lawmakers involved in presenting the new legislation include State Representative Supreme Moore Omokunde and Senator LaTonya Johnson.

"Today we are here to talk about a multifaceted approach to solving a multifaceted challenge. That is reckless driving. And in our district, in the 17th Assembly District, we did a survey and we got 500 responses. And and half of those responses. People listed public safety as their highest challenge in, in about 2,025% of those additional responses. People said reckless driving, was a challenge. And so we're here," Moore said. 

State Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde (D-Milwaukee)

Moore and Johnson said they are introducing a bill that would allocate $60 million and general purpose revenue from the state of Wisconsin to traffic calming grants, where municipalities and also tribal nations could come to the state of Wisconsin so that they could have the dollars to engineer and take that approach to solving the challenge that is reckless driving.

"Because traffic calming saves lives, it's plain and it's simple," Johnson said. "We need to make sure that our infrastructure we reflects the need of our constituents, and that is to save as many lives as possible by making our streets and our communities safer. We know the designs that work that curb extensions, raised sidewalks, pedestrian islands, mini roundabouts, harder center lines, speed bumps. These are all designed to slow the flow of traffic and to protect people. And this bill would make sure that the majority of those things were possible by empowering our communities to design and build the projects we know that better serve the community needs their neighborhoods, but most importantly, keep our communities safe."

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee)

By the numbers:

A news release from the lawmakers says in 2024 alone, there were 138 fatalities and 2,084 people injured as a result of over 5,600 reckless driving crashes in the state of Wisconsin.

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