Crappy stop and go roads (Greenfield coming up to target and Miller parkway) and others (Milwaukee: house)

[RomanticGayHim1986]

Super duper wish this city would friggin fix the road on greenfield avenue coming up towards Target on Miller Parkway. If I didn’t know any better, I were riding a galloping horse rather than driving a car coming down that ratchet road the city has ignored since I moved towards this section of milwaukee. Doesn’t help that I want to slow down on all the jags and bumps and Wisconsin drives want to go 70 miles per hour across them, tailgating me like idiots.

Even New Berlin roads and where train tracks cross were bad for all of last year in New Berlin on Moreland before the city finally addressed it. Had the same issues there where Wisconsin’s idiot drivers seemingly blew a gasket because I dared to slow down across gaping potholes and monstrously tire damaging beat up train tracks. The cars would zip past me like idiots. New Berlin at least has fixed those issues after about a year. Greenfield in Milwaukee continues to a disaster.

We are quick to fix our expressways but the city doesn’t do diddly squat about the horrid state of the stop and go streets. There’s no way we can be very high on the list for our roads.

[sub]

This pertains to much of Wisconsin, but Milwaukee is the worst offender.
Some observations from a transplant:

Many city streets are way too wide. Sounds like a good thing but it's not. Flat, straight, wide=faster speeds.
Many streets could stand to be narrower. Also, more one-way streets and dead-ends might curb some of this behavior.
There might be 20 ways to get from the suburbs to downtown because people can use side streets. Most are often in residential areas. That's not good.
There could be a few designated routes with minimal traffic lights to funnel people from one part of town to another.
There doesn't seem to be much to cause people to slow down or drive with caution in most areas.

Along those same lines are the parking lanes/shoulders that are very wide where they're unnecessary and not even needed.
These are in places where people will never, ever use them for parking, so why are they there to begin with?
That's a lot of extra concrete and asphalt to commit to maintaining, not to mention the extra cost of building them that way to begin with. Surely it affects the city's ability to pay for repairs.
The natives seem to be used to the atrocity of the streets since they slow down for absolutely nothing.

Staying with the parking lanes, they're also apparently expected to be used as right turn lanes even when there's no markings or signage indicating such usage. That is incredibly confusing to people not from Wisconsin or this part of the country.
I see how this possibly creates all sorts of problems which might fuel Wisconsinites' absence of driving patience.

Right turn lanes are only needed for major intersections, not secondary streets or people's personal driveways. They also need to be designed to where once you're in the right turn lane, you have to commit to making the turn and not use them as a cheapskate way to get around traffic.

Parking lanes should also not be used as passing-on-the-right-lanes to get around someone turning left. Bicycles, parked cars... all sorts of hazards in doing that.
Basically, if they're going to have these wide parking lanes, there needs to be plenty of barriers in the form of curbing that would keep people from abusing them.
People just don't think they should ever have to slow down for anything, even on city streets. City streets are not freeways.
If you can't be bothered with slowing down for people making turns in the city, you don't have any business driving a car period.

Tailgating is for ballgames, not for the person doing 5 over the speed limit in front of you.

Sidewalks and curbing everywhere. I generally like that. Milwaukee is a compact enough town where if you build a sidewalk, people can and will use it to go places. However, surely there are instances where they're not needed which might free up funds for street maintenance elsewhere.

Seems like when they do finally get around to fixing the streets, they wait until everything underneath needs replacing then they rip it all out and do a complete makeover.
That's great, but in the meantime perhaps a resurfacing job every 4-5 years would be in order.
Just scrape off a layer of asphalt and lay down a new layer. It can be done in a matter of days.


Of course a lot of big cities have crazy drivers and bad streets. Milwaukee just takes all that to another level.
It's sad, because it can be a great town in a lot of other ways.

Wisconsin is a nice place to live, but I increasingly find myself not wanting to leave the house because of the horrid streets and insane drivers.
Some days, I'd be willing to pack it all up and leave just because of these two issues.

[RomanticGayHim1986]

Originally Posted by sub

This pertains to much of Wisconsin, but Milwaukee is the worst offender.
Some observations from a transplant:

Many city streets are way too wide. Sounds like a good thing but it's not. Flat, straight, wide=faster speeds.
Many streets could stand to be narrower. Also, more one-way streets and dead-ends might curb some of this behavior.
There might be 20 ways to get from the suburbs to downtown because people can use side streets. Most are often in residential areas. That's not good.
There could be a few designated routes with minimal traffic lights to funnel people from one part of town to another.
There doesn't seem to be much to cause people to slow down or drive with caution in most areas.

Along those same lines are the parking lanes/shoulders that are very wide where they're unnecessary and not even needed.
These are in places where people will never, ever use them for parking, so why are they there to begin with?
That's a lot of extra concrete and asphalt to commit to maintaining, not to mention the extra cost of building them that way to begin with. Surely it affects the city's ability to pay for repairs.
The natives seem to be used to the atrocity of the streets since they slow down for absolutely nothing.

Staying with the parking lanes, they're also apparently expected to be used as right turn lanes even when there's no markings or signage indicating such usage. That is incredibly confusing to people not from Wisconsin or this part of the country.
I see how this possibly creates all sorts of problems which might fuel Wisconsinites' absence of driving patience.

Right turn lanes are only needed for major intersections, not secondary streets or people's personal driveways. They also need to be designed to where once you're in the right turn lane, you have to commit to making the turn and not use them as a cheapskate way to get around traffic.

Parking lanes should also not be used as passing-on-the-right-lanes to get around someone turning left. Bicycles, parked cars... all sorts of hazards in doing that.
Basically, if they're going to have these wide parking lanes, there needs to be plenty of barriers in the form of curbing that would keep people from abusing them.
People just don't think they should ever have to slow down for anything, even on city streets. City streets are not freeways.
If you can't be bothered with slowing down for people making turns in the city, you don't have any business driving a car period.

Tailgating is for ballgames, not for the person doing 5 over the speed limit in front of you.

Sidewalks and curbing everywhere. I generally like that. Milwaukee is a compact enough town where if you build a sidewalk, people can and will use it to go places. However, surely there are instances where they're not needed which might free up funds for street maintenance elsewhere.

Seems like when they do finally get around to fixing the streets, they wait until everything underneath needs replacing then they rip it all out and do a complete makeover.
That's great, but in the meantime perhaps a resurfacing job every 4-5 years would be in order.
Just scrape off a layer of asphalt and lay down a new layer. It can be done in a matter of days.


Of course a lot of big cities have crazy drivers and bad streets. Milwaukee just takes all that to another level.
It's sad, because it can be a great town in a lot of other ways.

Wisconsin is a nice place to live, but I increasingly find myself not wanting to leave the house because of the horrid streets and insane drivers.
Some days, I'd be willing to pack it all up and leave just because of these two issues.

Nailed hook, line and sinker. Way too much rush, rush, rush. Though I won’t lie. I don’t like waiting behind cars trying to turn left either and always go around them if there’s room and I can squeeze through any way I know. In a busy area like where I live near the stadium in West Milwaukee, if nobody went around, it would take double long with hellishly long lines at lights. That’s my personal opinion on that but otherwise I completely agree with everything else and am fixing to move because of the reckless drivers and crazy rude driving alone.

[sub]

Just don't take Milwaukee habits with you if you move.
Most likely, they won't understand the swerve-around-on-the-right thingy, among many other MKE/WI oddities. Might even get you a ticket or perhaps incite some road rage.
Driving on shoulders is a big no-no in much of America. Since no one drives on them, that's also where nails and glass tend to hang out. I've had a flat tire or two when I have had to use the shoulder in other states.
First, observe the locals, then do as they do. Funny thing is, traffic is no worse in other places where they actually stop and wait for people to turn. The way streets are designed makes a difference.

Anyway, to sum up my previous rambling post, Milwaukee's streets are poorly designed and overbuilt. They could encourage better/slower/more sane driving as well as have less concrete and asphalt to maintain if they fixed those two issues.

[mrkool]

I have encountered what I call "third world roads" in parts of the city. Yeah, they're that bad, and I've seen third world countries. All that money Tom Barrett and his democrat pals spent (600 mil. I think) on that worthless little trolley cruising around downtown, could have fixed A LOT of streets in Milw.

I'm at least glad that on a state level, Gov. Walker put a stop to the huge boondoggle of the high speed train between Milw. and Madison that Doyle tried to force on us at huge cost.

[ram2]

Originally Posted by mrkool

I have encountered what I call "third world roads" in parts of the city. Yeah, they're that bad, and I've seen third world countries. All that money Tom Barrett and his democrat pals spent (600 mil. I think) on that worthless little trolley cruising around downtown, could have fixed A LOT of streets in Milw.

If you want to see and experience third world roads, visit Michigan.

[RomanticGayHim1986]

Originally Posted by mrkool

I have encountered what I call "third world roads" in parts of the city. Yeah, they're that bad, and I've seen third world countries. All that money Tom Barrett and his democrat pals spent (600 mil. I think) on that worthless little trolley cruising around downtown, could have fixed A LOT of streets in Milw.

I'm at least glad that on a state level, Gov. Walker put a stop to the huge boondoggle of the high speed train between Milw. and Madison that Doyle tried to force on us at huge cost.

Well, I am a gay black Democrat so we will have fundamental differences in politics but I will say that this that I wholeheartedly agree with you on that uber ridiculous trolley stupidity over I the Third World.