Traffic Stress Factors

BikeAble™ evaluates the quality of bicycle facilities based on how likely a facility is to reduce stress for the average user. While bicycle facilities can reduce stress along a street, not all facilities reduce stress by the same amount. 

For example, a sharrow (a symbol of a bicycle with two chevrons above it, marked on a roadway to indicate that motor vehicles and bicycles are to share the lane) would reduce stress by very little, while a protected bike lane along the same street would reduce stress by a much greater amount.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation:

“Safe non-motorized transportation options, combined with access to public transportation, are critical components of a transportation network that connects people—especially low-income households—with jobs, education, and essential services, providing ‘ladders of opportunity.” 

People’s ability to get to key destinations on routes where they feel safe biking or walking—otherwise known as “low-stress routes”—is important everywhere but crucial in neighborhoods experiencing inequality, where oftentimes few people have access to a car.

This analysis studied the ability of Milwaukee residents to get to key destinations via existing bicycle routes and trail networks using low-stress routes, generating a connectivity score for the city based on access to key destinations such as schools, libraries, grocery stores, and hospitals as well as the potential for residents to reach a job location by bike. 

Citywide Key Destination Connectivity Score:

59%

Residents connected through low-stress routes to a majority of key destinations within 2 miles.

Citywide Employment Center Connectivity Score: 

40%

Residents connected to at least one employment center within 2 miles.

Bad Driver Behavior

BikeAble™ analyzes infrastructure and roadway characteristics, not human behavior, which has a significant impact on a bicyclist’s or pedestrian’s experience. 

In Milwaukee, drivers routinely exceed the speed limit or engage in other unsafe or threatening behaviors—factors that are likely underrepresented in the study but which significantly affect the stress level of the network. These survey results suggest that the actual stress level of biking in Milwaukee is higher than the infrastructure itself—and the connectivity score—would imply.

In a survey of Milwaukee residents by Path to Platinum:

64 percent of respondents reported that bad driver behavior was a “somewhat major”/”major reason” they did not bike more.

Photo courtesy Bublr Bikes

Bublr Bikes is creating opportunities to enhance access.

By providing affordable access to bicycles for short trips, bike-sharing systems—like Milwaukee’s Bublr Bikes—are helping to expand the distances residents can travel, potentially connecting them to more destinations.

For example, with Bublr, you’re able to take a bike from one Bublr station, enjoy a quick ride to wherever and return the bike to any Bublr station that’s nearby. 

(Left) Hank Aaron State Trail (Right) Oak Leaf Trail | Photos by David Schlabowske, courtesy Wisconsin Bike Fed 

Trails allow people walking and biking to travel fully separated from threatening automobile traffic. While highways and high-stress streets isolate the areas caught between, trails connect neighborhoods, stitch together communities and allow people to reach their destinations on traffic-stress-free routes for walking and biking.

“With 450,000 people living within 3 miles of the Hank Aaron State Trail, the corridor provides a vital connection between Lake Michigan, a variety of diverse neighborhoods and many of the state’s most popular destinations. The Milwaukee County Zoo, Wisconsin State Fair, Miller Park, the many businesses and amenities in the Menomonee Valley, and all that Milwaukee’s lakefront has to offer can be reached on the Hank Aaron State Trail. As we like to say, the Trail will take you there!”

Today, Milwaukee is home to amazing trail facilities, but those trails do not reach residents in the north-central or south-central neighborhoods of the city. These communities are left isolated by physical barriers and unsafe streets, reinforcing patterns of segregation and inequity in the city. Opportunities for new trails exist that would better connect these communities and stitch them back into the fabric of the larger city. 

Walking Access to Trails

Today, only about 8 percent of Milwaukee residents live within a half-mile of a trail. This is the maximum distance that most people are willing to walk. In the neighborhoods experiencing inequality, that percentage falls to just 3 percent. 

But adding two new pieces of key trail infrastructure—the 30th Street Corridor and Kinnickinnic River Trail—along with extensions of existing trails, will increase access to 14 percent for residents citywide and 11 percent for residents in the targeted area. 

Biking Access to Trails

Today, only about 24 percent of Milwaukee residents live within 2 miles of a trail. This is the maximum distance that most people are willing to bike. In the neighborhoods experiencing inequality, that percentage falls to just 8 percent. But adding the same two new pieces of trail infrastructure—the 30th Street Corridor and Kinnickinnic River Trail—along with extensions of existing trails, will increase access to 59 percent for residents citywide and 66 percent for residents in the targeted area. 

This means that in neighborhoods experiencing inequality, the number of residents able to access a trail would jump from 25,000 to 200,000. 

Recommendations

This analysis defines geographic areas of neighborhood inequality in which residents are more disconnected from key destinations and active transportation infrastructure than other residents in the city. Providing safe, low-stress routes for bicycling and walking would provide access to services and opportunities, and ultimately help to diminish the isolation of these neighborhoods.

Specifically, investment in the 30th Street Corridor and the Kinnickinnic River Trail will provide not just health and recreation opportunities, but connectivity to centers of activity and employment.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s BikeAble™ tool is a GIS-modeling platform that analyzes the bicycle connectivity of a community to determine the best low-stress route for bicycling between a set of user-specified origins and destinations. Stress-tolerance parameters are unique to each study to limit and define the connectivity between origins and destinations specific to the needs of the community. The tool can also compare current scenarios with future scenarios to evaluate the potential impact of investments in trails and bicycle infrastructure on the connectivity of a community. It also allows for population-specific assessments to identify inequities in the current bicycle network as well as opportunities to improve equitable access to trails in the community. 

The full methodology statement for the “Reconnecting Milwaukee” study is available at railstotrails.org.

Milwaukee is a part of the Route of the Badger.

The Route of the Badger offers a vision of healthy, thriving communities in Southeast Wisconsin centered around a world-class, 500-mile-plus regional trail system that connects people across towns and counties. Southeast Wisconsin is home to 340 miles of existing trail, which means that a relatively small investment that builds upon existing infrastructure can improve the connectivity of the trail system, better connecting people to the places they want to go. This approach to trail-system development is a placemaking strategy that positions trails as community necessities, rather than nice-to-have amenities. When more people can use trails to get where they want to go, the benefits to the economy, public health and transportation become the foundation of healthy, sustainable communities.

To view the network map and learn more about the Route of the Badger, visit railstotrails.org.