SAFE TRANSPORTATION FOR EVERY PEDESTRIAN CASE STUDY

Milwaukee Counts on Data for Improving 

Pedestrian Safety 

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

KEY ELEMENTS:

Pedestrian Exposure Modeling

Yielding Rate Analysis

The City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, adopted a new 

Pedestrian Plan in 2019 to support connectivity, 

public health, livability, and pedestrian safety. The 

Plan included an innovative approach to evaluating 

pedestrian crash risk through a combination of crash 

typing, network analysis, and estimating pedestrian 

exposure.

BACKGROUND

Despite a robust sidewalk and path 

network with millions of trips, walking 

and crossing Milwaukee’s streets can be 

challenging, and pedestrian fatalities 

have increased in recent years. The City 

developed the Milwaukee Pedestrian 

Plan to address these concerns. An 

essential Plan outcome was to develop a 

data-driven, systemic process to assess 

pedestrian risk and provide ways for 

City staff to prioritize countermeasure 

installations to improve pedestrian safety. 

RISK ASSESSMENT

The Plan included several analyses to 

better understand the behaviors, crash 

types, and locations that pose the greatest 

risk to people walking in the City.

Crash Typing

The City conducted a study to categorize 

a sample of its pedestrian crashes using 

standard crash types. This analysis 

provided a basis for improving pedestrian 

safety by highlighting the most common 

pedestrian crash types and crash types 

most likely to result in serious injury or 

death. Crash typing allowed the City to 

select relevant countermeasures to reduce 

the most serious types of crashes.

For more information, please contact:

Mike Amsden, AICP, City of Milwaukee

mike.amsden@milwaukee.gov | 414.286.3246

©2020 City of Milwaukee.

Figure 1. Photo. Driver failing to yield to pedestrians at 

uncontrolled crossing.
Case Study: Milwaukee Counts on Data for Improving Pedestrian 

Safety STEP: https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/step/

Yield Study

Failure to yield by motorists poses significant 

risk to pedestrians and limits opportunities 

to safely cross streets. Wisconsin law 

requires drivers to yield to people walking 

at all marked and unmarked crosswalks 

that do not have a traffic signal. The City 

observed yielding rates at 40 intersections; 

the rates ranged from 0 to 61 percent, 

with an average of 22 percent. This 

data encouraged the City to focus on 

countermeasures that improve pedestrian 

visibility and increase yielding rates.

Pedestrian High-Injury Network

The Plan created a Pedestrian High-Injury 

Network (HIN) map that displayed where 

the most serious pedestrian crashes had 

occurred. The Pedestrian HIN weighted 

severe and fatal crashes more than nonsevere crashes. The City totaled the crash 

points with a moving-window analysis and 

created a heat map of the most dangerous 

Milwaukee corridors. The Pedestrian HIN 

represented approximately 106 miles of 

streets, or about 7 percent of all streets in 

Milwaukee. City staff then used the analysis 

to prioritize specific streets for pedestrian 

safety improvements.

Pedestrian Exposure Risk

Pedestrian exposure—the number 

of pedestrians passing through an 

intersection—can help explain crash risk 

in addition to mapping crash locations. 

However, determining pedestrian exposure 

and crash risk is challenging, as counts 

of people walking can be time-intensive 

to determine. The City conducted 

short-duration pedestrian counts at 66 

intersections and extrapolated the data 

to estimate annual pedestrian crossings. 

The City also collected data on nearby 

land use, transit stops, and population and 

employment density. The City then used the 

data to develop a model to predict annual 

pedestrian crossings at 4,470 intersections.

Finally, the City combined the predicted 

pedestrian volumes with crash data to 

estimate a pedestrian crash rate per 

million pedestrian crossings. With these 

approximate crash rates, City staff are 

equipped to target pedestrian safety 

countermeasure installations in areas with 

elevated pedestrian crash risk (as shown in 

figure 2).

“In addition to a carefully crafted implementation 

strategy, the Pedestrian High Injury Network 

and pedestrian crash risk model have been 

instrumental in prioritizing infrastructure 

improvements [and] as a primary reference 

in grant applications and project scoping 

documents.” 

–James Hannig, AICP, Milwaukee Pedestrian &

Bicycle Coordinator

Figure 2. Graphic. Excerpt from estimated pedestrian crash rates. ©2020 City of Milwaukee.