Madison Reporter

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway is imploring more citizens to join in her crusade to improve traffic safety and accident reduction across the city.

“We continue to work to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities, and we know one way to do that is to reduce speeds,” Rhodes-Conway said in an Aug. 29 tweet, promoting her Vision Zero initiative. “#VisionZero The effort needs all of us to participate. Additional speed reductions start today.”

The mayor’s latest outreach comes just days after WMTV reported a 59-year-old local man was taken into custody for allegedly driving approximately 20 mph over the speed limit in downtown Madison. The suspect was stopped in the area of East Washington Avenue and Livingston Street after being observed going 44 mph in a 25 mph zone.

After attempting to flee the scene, the man now faces charges of resisting arrest and a fourth offense of operating while intoxicated (OWI).

As part of Vision Zero, speed limits along a stretch of East Washington Avenue were reduced to 35 mph back in July in hopes of reducing the number of accidents in that area, a City of Madison report said. Over the last seven years, City officials noted that there have been 12 injuries and four fatalities on that street. As recently as in 2020-21, two people were killed attempting to cross East Washington Avenue along that section.

The newest change in the Vision Zero project came on Aug. 29, when a speed limit reduction from 40 mph to 35 mph was put into place along Mineral Point Road, a recent Madison report said. With there having been approximately 20 accidents—four of them fatal—along that stretch since 2016, the hope is the reduction will help decrease the number of collisions and accidents in the area.