Shorewood’s new-look bike lanes ignite concerns, but experts say they lower crashes by 44%

Some Shorewood and Milwaukee residents have expressed confusion and concern over the village’s new Advisory Bike Lane, or ABL system, particularly a new configuration along a 0.8-mile stretch of Edgewood Avenue between North Lake Drive and North Oakland Avenue.

But experts say the new system can help lower crash rates along the roadway by up to 44%.

The ABL system requires cars to share a single traffic lane, merge into bike lanes to avoid collisions and yield to cyclists when merging.

The Edgewood Avenue changes made in early November are part of a joint street resurfacing project between the city of Milwaukee and the village of Shorewood, since the border between them runs down the center of Edgewood.

The project cost $630,000, which is being split evenly between the two communities.

How to drive along Shorewood's new ABLs

For motorists, driving along the ABL system is similar to driving on narrow residential streets that can’t accommodate parked cars and two-way traffic, Shorewood Public Works Director Leeann Butschlick said. The only additional rule is yielding to cyclists.

ABL stands for Advisory Bike Lanes, but village officials said in a Nov. 10 memo posted to the village website to think of the ‘A’ as a reminder to ‘Assess’ surroundings for parked cars, cyclists and oncoming traffic.

The ‘B’ is a reminder to ‘Bear right,’ which involves merging into the bike lane after checking for and yielding to cyclists.

Finally, consider the 'L' a cue to ‘Lane it up,’ or return to the traffic lane — all while maintaining a speed below 25 mph.

In the Nov. 10 memo, officials advised residents to view the system as an extension of normal driving practices, emphasizing bicyclist safety.

The memo said the new ABL system “should be no more difficult than learning how to use a traffic circle or roundabout.”

Residents seeking more information about the ABL system can visit the village’s official website on the Edgewood Avenue project, which provides detailed guidelines on how to navigate the new bike lanes.

The village also encouraged residents to view short online videos, which were created when ABLs were added to streets in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

What has backlash to the Edgewood ABL looked like?

In the weeks since the new configuration’s completion, some residents have voiced excitement about the new, smooth pavement. But others have voiced concerns, which range from puzzled to outraged.

A Wisconsin Right Now reporter who drove along Edgewood called the system “insane” and “a recipe for disaster.”

Commenters on a Facebook post republishing the Wisconsin Right Now article worried whether drivers and bikers would have enough time and room to react if they are on a collision course.

Most of the negative reactions on Facebook generally express worry that confusion about the new configuration will lead to more vehicle crashes than were previously seen at that location.

But residents around Edgewood were already concerned about drivers consistently exceeding the speed limit, said Alexander Pendleton, who lives just off of Edgewood Avenue and works as a business attorney and founder of the Milwaukee firm Pendleton Legal, S.C.

Although it's just a single roadway in the village, crashes along Edgewood accounted for 5% of Shorewood’s property damage crashes from Oct. 25, 2022, to Oct. 25, 2023, according to the Shorewood Police Department. Of the 142 property damage crashes in the village, seven took place on Edgewood.

Pendleton said this preexisting dysfunction is why Edgewood was a good candidate for ABL installation, since ABLs reduce speed limits.

When he first heard about the city of Milwaukee’s plans for ABLs two years ago, Pendleton assumed they were a bad idea. But he's since changed his mind.

“Once I actually used ABLs in other cities, and considered the studies indicating how beneficial ABLs are for all users, I now fully support the decision to try ABLs on Edgewood,” he said.

What do experts say about ABLs?

While ABLs are relatively new to the Milwaukee area, ABLs currently exist on over 70 streets across the U.S.

The Nov. 10 village memo acknowledged resident concerns as natural and said initial blowback was seen in just about every other community in which ABLs have been installed. Research from the University of San Jose indicates that as drivers become familiar with the new configuration, public concern about ABLs tends to disappear within one or two months of installation.

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Professor of Urban Planning Robert Schneider said while it's natural for people to question the safety of new traffic changes, given the research and evidence behind ABLs, the design actually lowers crashes, which were already relatively high along Edgewood.

A 2021 study from the University of San Jose’s Mineta Transportation Institute analyzed 11 ABLs around the country, studying over 60 million vehicle trips over eight years. The study showed up to a 44% reduction in traffic crashes on roads that implemented ABLs, indicating the street design contributes to traffic calming.

A 2017 report from the transportation firm ALTA concluded that ABLs reduce vehicle speeds, increase driver attentiveness and increase cycling rates.

"Streets are public spaces," Schneider said. "We need to think about streets in terms of how they can ultimately work best for all types of travelers. If we continue to use the same designs that have been used for the last 40 or 50 years, we will probably continue to see some of the same poor safety results that we are seeing across the city, county and region."

Schneider drove along the new configuration Monday afternoon and said traffic is slower than it used to be.

"The people that I've seen on the street so far have been behaving as you would hope to expect, which is they're paying attention. They see a new type of design and are being cautious, and we actually need a lot more caution in the way we drive on every street in this city," Schneider said.

Why place an ABL along Edgewood in the first place?

The purpose of ABLs is to “create preferential space for people biking and driving on narrow, low-volume streets that otherwise would operate as a shared roadway,” according to the village’s official website on the project.

In Shorewood’s case, the ABL on Edgewood allows the village to add biking lanes while maintaining existing parking lanes.

Traffic lanes are typically 11 feet wide. Bike lanes are 5 feet, and parking lanes are between 7 and 9 feet, according to the village website.

Edgewood Avenue is 36 feet wide, meaning the roadway isn’t wide enough to support traditionally marked traffic lanes, dedicated bike lanes and parking.

Previously, the road consisted of two 8-foot parking lanes and two 10-foot driving lanes. Now, the road contains a single 12-foot driving lane, two 5-foot biking lanes and two 7-foot parking lanes.

What's to come?

The city of Milwaukee and the village of Shorewood are gathering information about traffic on the street, and collecting resident and user feedback on the project’s website. That will be used to evaluate whether this is a type of street design should be continued or used on other streets.

"This is a pilot test, and it will be evaluated," Schneider said. "There may be some things that ultimately get tweaked in the future to make it work even better."

The vehicle speed reductions associated with ADLs are also expected to reduce the severity of any crashes that might occur, Butschlick said.

The village already lowered the speed limit to 25 mph, but the Shorewood Village Board took action to add more signage around the Edgewood ABL at its regular meeting Nov. 20. In particular, members voted to purchase a radar speed sign to be placed on the north side of Edgewood.

The village is using American Rescue Plan Act funds to cover the $3,300 cost of the radar sign.

At the meeting, Butschlick said two additional 25 mph signs have also been ordered, which brings the total sign count along Edgewood to five.

“The board's action tonight is not going to change the advisory bike lanes,” Butschlick said ahead of the meeting. “Now that we have a lovely new surface, our natural traffic calming is gone,” she said referring to the way road deterioration can act as speed bumps.

She argued that the proposed speed measures are more targeted at the inclination for people drive faster on smoother roads.

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Shorewood's new bike lanes on Edgewood Avenue