Madison mayor calls for speed reductions after fatal U.S. 151 crash

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The Madison mayor is speaking out Wednesday after a fatal crash involving a pedestrian on East Washington Avenue, calling for speed reductions in the area.

According to the Madison Police Dept., the vehicle collided with the pedestrian around 2:30 a.m., not far from the mile marker 98 exit ramp for I-90/94. The name of the pedestrian has not been released at this time. Officials have also not released a cause or why the person was in the roadway.

In her latest blog post, Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway stated that no traffic death is acceptable.

“The city is committed to improving the safety of all our residents and we will not stop until we eliminate all the traffic fatalities that we are able to with design, education and enforcement,” said Rhodes Conway.

The mayor stated the Vision Zero initiative is meant to eliminate traffic fatalities by reducing speeds and redesigning certain streets.

She also noted that East Washington Avenue is part of the state highway system in addition to the City of Madison, which normally sees over 50,000 vehicles a day. The city is working with the state on improvements, Rhodes Conway added.

In its efforts so far, the City has reduced speeds on East Washington Avenue in two places, 25 mph from Capitol to Baldwin Street and 30 mph from Baldwin Street to Marquette Street, as well as add more technology to better protect pedestrians.

“More dramatic changes to the design of the street are complicated issue that take time, and likely tens or hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Rhodes Conway. “We are just getting started, and won’t stop looking for more and better solutions.”

During the week of June 28, there were two fatal crashes on East Washington Avenue involving pedestrians near downtown Madison.