Oak Leaf Trail

Very popular trail.

Much of the Oak Leaf Trail is also the Beer Line Trail, and it's very popular.

These cameras are not used for tracking every citizen who walks down a trail, rides their bike down a trail, or drives down the street.

They're placed in highly specific zones to capture a specific destructive act.

And there's new updates on it within the past few days.

So you may recall late last month, Milwaukee County leaders were poised to enact a 15-mile-per-hour speed limit for e-bikes on portions of the Oak Leaf Trail.

Specifically...

The areas of the trail where you may see a lot of people, whether it's on the lakefront areas or just in general, anywhere in downtown Milwaukee or on the east side, etc.

right

and again this was going to do nothing to keep these bikes off because oh no someone on a smaller bike is going to say hey stop going that fast you're already gone You're way down the trail.

What do you care? Are you going to chase after me? Are we going to have bike chases on the Oak Leaf Trail? That's ridiculous.

Absolutely not.

So that's why this story that I've brought to the show, both as a reporter and also as a co-host, has baffled me at times, and there's new updates on it within the past few days.

So you may recall late last month, Milwaukee County leaders were poised to enact a 15 mile per hour speed limit for e-bikes on portions of the Oak Leaf Trail, specifically the areas of the trail where you may see a lot of people, whether it's on the lakefront areas or just in general anywhere in Downtown Milwaukee or on the east side, et cetera, and there were gonna be speed limits posted.

The open question was, okay, how are you even going to enforce that? And we never really got a good answer, but the county seemed poised to accept and adopt this proposal.

Here's Park's Deputy Director, Jim Tarantino, explaining the rationale of this idea and potentially simultaneously exposing a big problem with the legislation as written.

And again, this was going to do nothing to keep these bikes off 'cause, oh, no, someone on a smaller bike is gonna say, "Hey, stop going that fast." You're already gone.

You're way down the trail.

What do you care? Are you gonna chase after me? Are we gonna have bike chases on the Oak Leaf Trail? That's ridiculous.

Right.

So that's why this story that I've brought to the show both as a reporter and also as a co-host has baffled me at times, and there's new updates on it within the past few days.

So you may recall late last month, Milwaukee County leaders were poised to enact a 15 mile per hour speed limit for e-bikes on portions of the Oak Leaf Trail, specifically the areas of the trail where you may see a lot of people, whether it's on the lakefront areas or just in general anywhere in Downtown Milwaukee or on the east side, et cetera.

And there were gonna be speed limits posted.

The open question was, okay, how are you even going to enforce that? And we never really got a good answer.

And again, this was going to do nothing to keep these bikes off 'cause, oh, no, someone on a smaller bike is gonna say, "Hey, stop going that fast." You're already gone.

You're way down the trail.

What do you care? Are you gonna chase after me? Are we gonna have bike chases on the Oak Leaf Trail? That's ridiculous.

Right.

A plan to slow traffic on Milwaukee County trails has been stopped, at least for now.

The proposal would have set a 15 mile per hour limit on sections of the Oak Leaf Trail and other trails.

It's partly because of concerns about e-bikes and scooters.

A county supervisor said feedback showed that one broad rule might not be the right answer.

And even then, like, I'm not getting it up to 20 most days on a flat surface.

Why am I talking about how fast my e-bike can go? Well, because earlier this month during one of our five o'clock focuses, I touched on the idea of a speed limit for all bicycles and specifically e-bikes on the Oak Leaf Trail in Milwaukee County.

It was an idea that was being thrown around.

There were some surveys being done.

We were just talking about on the news about construction on Brady Street.

And the host of issues that has existed on that road and just the roads in general.

So there's going to be that balancing act that you have to do with, OK, do we really want to send our police forces or sheriff's forces rather out on portions of the Oak Leaf Trail to catch bikes that maybe are going just a touch over 15 miles an hour? So the plan, as I've read through it, they're only planning to enforce this near where there's actually a sign.

And it's only going to be in areas where there would be a lot more people.