Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Milwaukee

Wisconsin Dumps One Urban Highway Boondoggle in Favor of Another

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 19, 2015 | 5 Comments

One of the nation’s most poorly conceived highway proposals will become slightly less ridiculous. Transportation officials in Wisconsin recently announced they will no longer consider double-decking a portion of Interstate 94 in Milwaukee. The billion-dollar project would have raised the highway to building height in the Story Hill neighborhood. Wisconsin DOT hasn’t seen the light, […]

A Better Way to Spend $1 Billion Than Ramming More Roads Thru Milwaukee

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 3, 2014 | 5 Comments

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is set on widening Interstate 94, a highway that runs east-west through Milwaukee. The agency is so committed to this idea that it is proceeding, at great expense and over the objections of Milwaukee’s mayor, with a project to double-deck a portion of the road through a relatively densely populated […]

The Koch Brothers’ War on Transit

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 25, 2014 | 52 Comments

Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political network to strong-arm local transportation policy makers. But it was far from […]

WisDOT Falls Back on Old Data to Justify Double-Decker Urban Highway

By Phineas Baxandall and Jeff Inglis | Sep 19, 2014 | 1 Comment

U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group released a report yesterday, “Highway Boondoggles: Wasted Money and America’s Transportation Future.” In it, they examine 11 of the most wasteful, least justifiable road projects underway in America right now. Here’s the latest installment in our series profiling the various bad decisions that funnel so much money to infrastructure that does […]

How 3 Communities Fought Discriminatory Transportation Policies

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 3, 2014 | 5 Comments

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. To celebrate the occasion, PolicyLink and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights held a discussion this week about how that legislation has affected transportation policy. Three local community leaders […]

Freeway Fight: Scott Walker Wants to Drag Milwaukee Back to 1956

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 20, 2014 | 7 Comments

The mayor and residents of Milwaukee are fighting a massive urban highway project backed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Citing traffic congestion, the state is forging ahead with a $1.2 billion plan to expand Interstate 94. One design under consideration would stack freeway lanes on top of freeway lanes, double-decker style. The state says such […]

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