Mass Transit Matters

I just read an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the other day describing the drastic cuts in mass transit in Milwaukee and my stomach just sank.

Whenever a cut is made to a large program or service, what we never fully understand is who exactly this impacts and how. The bottom line with cuts in mass transit is it means elimination of routes, the scaling back of routes and service times, and it serves those who use it less.

Conseratives used mass transit as their whipping post, first by cutting services and increasing fees to make up for years of mismanagement. Then, when riders aren't well served by these changes and ridership starts to dip, the administration can use "lack of ridership" as an easy condition to further cut services.

Federal funding of mass transit is directly tied to ridership. Ridership has dropped by 2.4 million riders since 2009. This is an overall loss of more then 10 million riders in the past five years. Walker also has designs to remove mass transit from the transportation fund altogether, making it easy to simply get rid of mass transit.

I had a conversation with a friend who lives in the western suburbs. Her views are definitely skewed toward a life where the modern city isn't important to her. She said, "We can't afford to pay for this stuff," and "If people want to get around or get a job, let them get a crappy car."

Many who have left the city and only see it as a drain on their taxes will agree with this view. I simply don't see it the same way.

Here in the Tosa area, we are served by 15 different Milwaukee County Transit System routes. The most prominent routes are the No. 10, which runs from UWM and through Tosa (via Wisconsin Avenue and Blue Mound Road); the No. 21 run to Mayfair Mall via North Avenue; and the No. 76, which passes through Tosa via 68th Street as it runs from the northwest side (107th Street and Brown Deer Road) all the way to Southride Mall, one of Milwaukee Counties longest routes.

One philosophical issue is that many in government see mass transit as yet another social program. Due to the amount of low income and minority passengers in the community who depend on buses, it’s easy to look at it as an arm of social welfare. It’s simply not. Mass transit is a valuable tool in helping those who don’t have a car have the means to commute to their jobs. It also helps school systems transport students and colleges attract students who don’t live on campus.

In fact, a long study done by the American Physical Therapy Association shows that mass transit has significant social, environmental and economic benefits in large cities. It contributes to energy conservation and a cleaner environment. It improves the mobility of urban dwellers as well as cuts down on travel times, especially for those who live outside of the city. It allows us to cut traffic on our freeways and extends their lifetimes. And most importantly it enhances economic opportunity.

Not only does it allow lower-income and handicapped citizens the ability to get around to work and shop, it also makes accessibility to businesses that depend on these consumers more fluid.

If a percentage of service on the No. 10 line is cut, then a percentage of those who ride the No. 10 bus to Mayfair Mall may lose access, and business is impacted negatively.

Metropolitan Milwaukee can’t compete with other cities for business and affluence if we choose to just trash our mass transit. Unfortunately, now, when everything is getting pinched due to shrinking budgets, it’s nearly impossible to talk about remaking our mass transit system. We should’ve been focused on that in the '80s and '90s when we were raiding those funds to use elsewhere.

We not only need a better mass transit system that includes 24-hour service on key routes, we need more fuel-efficient buses, transportation commuter hubs, a dedicated  system of routes that serve our busiest routes and a bigger Freeway Flyer program. On top of that, we need light rail, so communities such as Waukesha, Washington County, the airport and satellite communities can use light rail to commute into the city.

Increased services will increase riders and allow the system to collect more revenue. A regional transportation organization with the ability to use a sales tax should be formed and this should be taken out of the hands of our incompetent local government. Let private industry come in and handle the marketing and advertising on these routes so ad revenue and outside revenue can be generated.

Partnership with shopping malls and business corridors to enhance the effectiveness of service should be explored. Also, enhanced safety and security need to be emphasized. This can be done with innovation and organization. Unfortunately, local government is not capable of that.

To be a competitive and vital urban area, we must have mass transportation that serves ALL of the citizens of our community and also is managed effectively. It can’t be an endless drain on taxes, but it also can’t be looked at as social welfare.

My hope is someone out there can step up and wake up the community so we all understand the importance of this issue. I use the bus still to this day. I’m sure that there are others who do still use it or would use it if it served their needs. It’s important that we fix this issue in our city.